May 19, 2009

Clicklaw — Your reliable resource for all things legal in British Columbia

The Internet is a wealth of information — if you know where to look. But for many of our clients, the sheer amount of information can be overwhelming at best.

Enter Clicklaw, a new website operated by Courthouse Libraries BC. It touts itself as being “better than Googling — for law-related info, that is,” and so far it has been well-received in the legal information world.

Clicklaw was specifically developed to be more than a site of laws. Instead, it features legal information and education designed for the public. Its mission is to provide equitable access to quality legal information, education, and help for British Columbians. Launched in April, Clicklaw was developed with a project grant from the Law Foundation. The Legal Services Society (LSS) is one of the founding contributor organizations and has played a large part in providing information for the site, with over 120 LSS publications and informational videos included on the Clicklaw database.

Sue Moor, a librarian at Vancouver Public Library, recently conducted Clicklaw training sessions with the public and says the feedback was great. "Everyone loved the website," she says. "The participants were so relieved to discover that such easily accessible legal information was available to them."

The Clicklaw site is organised by broad subject headings such as Your Money, Your Family, and Your Community, and includes a list of common problems as a starting point for helping people find answers to their legal questions. Clicklaw uses tags, which allow you to drill into more specific information with one or two clicks. For example, under the topic "Family law," click on the tags "child support" and "enforcement of support" to get a quick list of all resources that deal with enforcement of child support.

Although it is still in its infancy, there are many more features planned for the near future. These include FAQs, entry sites in languages other than English, a HelpMap, and a 'what’s new' feature.

LawLINK is a website maintained by LSS as a set of links to legal resources. Within the next six months, LSS will phase out LawLINK and rely on Clicklaw. After that, visitors to LawLINK will be automatically re-directed to Clicklaw.

Clicklaw is still in the test (beta) stages, so you might still find some rough edges. They're looking for user testers, to test features of the site in a one-on-one testing session that takes one hour. Testers are paid $50, and testers from outside the Lower Mainland are welcome (the testing can be done remotely over the Internet). If you’re interested, e-mail testing@clicklaw.bc.ca.