A womens advocacy group is proposing two pilot projects to address an urgent crisis in family law services caused by cuts to legal aid over the past decade, and Prince George would be an "excellent candidate" for at least one of them, says the organization's legal director.
In a report issued last week, West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund called for provincial government support to establish a "in-house counsel" at social agencies and a "one-stop shop" for women with family law problems.
Prince George would be particularly suitable for the in-house counsel proposal, West Coast LEAF legal director Laura Track said Monday. Under that program, a staff lawyer would be based in a community organization, such as a transition house, and help women with legal advice and representation.
"I think Prince George is an excellent candidate for that kind of service, [because of] where it's placed and the size of its population and the need that we heard from the Prince George community for legal representation services and family law," Track said.
In the report, West Coast LEAF suggested that in smaller centres, a lawyer might be paired with more than one agency and travel regularly between them while in larger centres with greater demand, a lawyer would work full-time at a given agency.
"If there is more than one place that it would make sense to have a lawyer present at, it could be perhaps two days at one location and two days at another location and a day set aside for court appearances and things like that," Track said.
As for the one-stop shop, where a student-driven storefront legal clinic serving women with family law problems would be established, Track said that program would be first located in the Lower Mainland where the need is greatest and then expanded throughout the province.
"B.C. has a history of community-based legal clinics which were part of what was cut in 2002 when the government slashed the legal aid budget," Track said. "We know that clinics work and we know that they succeed around the province and we would definitely be advocating for expansion of the clinic model into centres like Prince George once the initial pilot has been completed."
According to the report, fewer than half of the 6,579 women across B.C. who applied for legal aid in 2013 received a referral.
In 2002, the provincial government's share of the budget for the Legal Services Society, which administers legal aid, was slashed by almost 40 per cent over three years. As a result, the number of family law litigants approved for legal aid decreased from more than 15,500 in 2001 to fewer than 4,500 in 2012-13.
Lawyers who take legal aid files face "incredible challenges in providing comprehensive service to clients," said Track, who added a legal aid lawyer gets 25 hours to work on a family law file.
"That is quite insufficient to provide lasting final, sustainable solutions for people with family law problems," Track said.
The report also argued increasing legal aid funding would actually save the government money in the long term by reducing the the cost of the additional court time that comes the delays that cases involving unrepresented litigants tend to create. There are also savings in terms of reducing the broader social and health care costs that come with unresolved legal problems, the report said.
Of those who were referred to a legal aid lawyer on any matter, only 32 per cent were women.
The report found that 72 per cent of the legal aid referrals were for criminal matters, and in the large majority of those referrals, men were the accused, Track said.
"Women are much more likely to need family law services in the context of a relationship break down," Track said. "They're much more likely to be disadvantaged by that breakdown, they're more likely to be experiencing violence in the course of their relationship and we know that attempting to separate from an abusive spouse is one of the most dangerous times for women, so that really underlines the need for legal advice and representation services at that time."
Provincial government funding will be needed to launch the two pilot projects and Track suggested the money be administered through an independent body such as the B.C. Law Foundation, which funds access to justice projects around the province.
In an e-mail response, B.C. Justice Minister Susan Anton said "improving access to justice is not just about adding more money. It is also about looking at new, innovative approaches to improving the effectiveness of our justice system."
She noted that the Family Law Act, which came into effect a year ago, provides for out-of-court resolution process with the help of mediators, parenting coordinators and arbitrators. There are four local members of Family Mediation Canada, all working out of the provincial government's Family Justice Centre in the Plaza 400 building downtown.
B.C. is also providing $74.5 million in base budget funding for Legal Services in 2014-15 - an increase of $2 million over last years budget," Anton said.
The West Coast LEAF report also noted that 38 per cent of Canadian marriages end in divorce, resulting in about 70,000 divorce orders annually. Family law cases account for about 35 per cent of all civil cases in B. C. There were 68,532 family court cases in B. C. in 2009-10.
