Filed under: Activism, News, PEA | Tags: access to justice, coalition to support public legal services, duty counsel, kamloops lawyers
TO ALL DUTY COUNSEL:
Earlier this month, after much discussion the Kamloops bar voted to withdraw all duty counsel services beginning January 11, 2010 in protest of the announced closure of the Kamloops office of the Legal Services Society at the end of March 2010.
In response LSS has notified lawyers who currently provide duty counsel services in other communities that they have duty counsel openings in Kamloops from January through March and will pay travel and accommodation costs in addition to the regular tariff.
We urge all lawyers who have received this invitation from LSS to support the decision of the Kamloops bar and refuse to make themselves available as alternate service providers. The Kamloops bar has taken this action in an attempt to prevent the undermining of public legal services in their community and they deserve our support. Please let LSS know that you do not support the LSS decision to close all but two offices open to the public in the province (Vancouver and Terrace).
This notice is posted by the Coalition to Support Public Legal Services. The Coalition calls on the government to review the structure, management, mandate and funding of legal aid in BC through a series of public consultations. Visit accesstojustice.ca for further information.
The Coalition includes the following organizations: West Coast Women’s Legal Education & Action Fund, Pivot Legal Society, BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre, BC Civil Liberties Association, Professional Employees’ Association, Western Society to Access Justice, Pro Bono BC, Community Legal Assistance Society, Tenants Rights’ Action Centre, Upper Skeena Community Legal Assistance Society, West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association, First United Church Mission, the Council of Senior Citizens of BC
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This seems a tad counterproductive. Presumably the LSS is closing its offices because it can no longer afford to keep them open. The lawyers’ protest won’t have the slightest impact on the decision-makers who hold the purse strings; they couldn’t care less whether the poor *ever* get legal services.
Comment by Geneva Hagen January 11, 2010 @ 6:52 pm