Legal aid underfunding protested by B.C. lawyers
Legal aid lawyers will withdraw services for the month of July to protest funding shortfalls
Lawyers will be rallying in their robes outside the provincial courthouse on Main Street in Vancouver at 12:30 p.m. PT today to protest what they say has been the severe underfunding of legal aid by the B.C. government.
As part of the protest the lawyers plan to withhold their services until Aug. 8, and say they will repeat the service withdrawal for the first week of every month starting in October until something changes.
The Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. says that two of every three people who apply for legal aid are turned down because of a chronic funding shortage.
"Things have been very bad for many years, and it's only gotten worse over time. Far too many citizens need help, yet two-thirds of them are denied legal aid when they apply for assistance," says Chris Johnson, one of three co-chairs of the association's legal aid action committee
According to the NDP's justice critic Leonard Krog, the government collects $144 million dollars a year in legal service taxes, but less than $90 million dollars is given to the Legal Services Society, which administers the legal aid program.
"Legal Services has struggled for years. The reality is, it's harder and harder to find lawyers to take legal aid cases and essentially what it means is the poor in this province, those who used to receive some form of legal aid, simply don't get it."
Krog says that means people who can't afford a lawyer are trying to defend themselves in court against trained lawyers.
"I wouldn't want a guy to repair my deck if he didn't know how to hold a hammer, and I wouldn't want to represent myself in court if I wasn't a lawyer."
In 2012 trial lawyers launched a similar protest over legal aid funding after a 2011 inquiry into legal aid in B.C. by high-profile lawyer Len Doust concluded legal assistance for low-income people should be declared an essential public service and get stable government funding.
Doust said federal and provincial funding cuts have left the system unable to meet the most basic needs of B.C. residents and governments must provide increased, stable funding.
The B.C. government responded in 2011 by boosting funding by $2 million per year.