January 20, 2009

Legal aid service and staff changes

A news release about service and staff changes at the Legal Services Society (LSS) was posted on the LSS website on January 13, 2009. Most of the changes described in this release take effect April 2009.

The following services, among others, continue after April 2009:

• Regional centre and local agent offices — Staffing levels are unchanged outside the Lower Mainland.
• Surrey Regional Centre — This office will move to a new location in New Westminster in late 2009. Intake services will continue to be provided at the Surrey courthouse after the move. LSS will also explore community partnerships to extend intake services in other locations in the South Fraser area.
• Intake services (legal aid applications) at all walk-in locations (offices and courts) and through the provincial call centre are unaffected .
• Legal information outreach workers are still available at regional centres and the Nanaimo Justice Access Centre.
• Fieldworkers and publishing services (with reduced staffing levels)
• LawLINE (with reduced staffing levels)

Please let your contacts and clients know about the full range of services that continue to be available through LSS.

The elimination of the staff lawyer model in the Lower Mainland means that LSS will no longer have staff family and criminal staff lawyers working in the Surrey Regional Centre and the Vancouver Regional Centre (including the Family Law Clinic). The Surrey Regional Centre, however, will have a managing lawyer who handles a limited range and volume of cases. Clients affected by these changes will be contacted. Clients who continue to qualify for legal aid after April 2009 and no longer have staff lawyers will be referred to private bar lawyers for further assistance.

LSS has created a new e-mail address so you can send us your suggestions, comments, or questions about service delivery: LSS-Services@lss.bc.ca.

We will provide further details about the changes to legal aid in future issues of ELAN.