29 Mar, 2024
1 min read

CBA BC branch slams provincial budget for absence of new funding for family law legal aid

“BC is the only province in Canada that does not provide family law legal aid for routine matters,” he says. “We’re just asking the government to bring it up to the level of coverage and funding that other provinces provide.”

A spokesperson for the BC Ministry of the Attorney General told Canadian Lawyer that, while there is “always more work to do,” the province has made “significant investments” in legal aid since 2018. They say Legal Aid’s 2024 budget included $75 million more in government funding than the 2016/2017 budget. Legal Aid BC also adjusted financial eligibility thresholds across all areas of law, which resulted in more than 3,300 additional contracts being issued between December 2022 and January 2024.

The spokesperson notes that BC provides “family limited representation contracts” that assist clients with family law issues with mediation, settlement negotiation, and self-representation.

On Feb. 15, BC announced that it would expand legal aid coverage and open a new family law clinic focused on survivors of intimate partner violence. Overall, the new investment is worth $29 million and resolves a long-standing Charter challenge that argued BC’s patchwork of legal aid delivery was inequitable, arbitrary, and harmful to those with abusive romantic partners. The CBABC applauded the announcement, with Morishita calling it a “step in the right direction” but noting that a gap remained.

Morishita says British Columbians can receive legal aid funding if they are accused of a crime or have an immigration claim, but if they need help with separation and divorce, parenting arrangements, and dividing property fairly, it is not available.

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1 min read

Hopes legal aid funding review will deliver equal justice

Mark Dreyfus

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has announced a review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership. Photo: Anna Carlisle.

Overburdened legal aid centers across the country will be hoping the latest review of government funding arrangements delivers on their promises to ensure all Australians have equal access to the law.

Don’t hold your breath. Funding is never enough, as any legal aid lawyer will tell you.

Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus last week announced an independent review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership, a funding agreement between all Australian governments to provide the most vulnerable access to legal assistance for civil matters, such as family law disputes and child protection.

State and territory governments fund most criminal law matters.

A decade or more of chronic underfunding by all governments for legal aid services has recently forced Aboriginal legal aid services in NSW and Queensland to suspend services.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (NATILS) says demand for legal services has increased by 100 per cent since 2018, but federal government core funding has declined in real terms.

An emergency injection of $21 million in federal government funding in May would “do little more than help keep the lights on”, NATILS said.

“We fully expect service freezes to continue and that means bad outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, including unjust incarceration and separated families,” NATILS chair Karly Warner said.

The ACT Government has just delivered a $2 million boost for community legal services within the budget, including for the NSW/ACT Aboriginal Legal Service, which Ms Warner leads. In the ACT, its services continue.

A longer-term boost to national funding for legal aid services is at least another year away.

The current national funding agreement is due to expire in 2025. Since 2020, it will have delivered $2.4 billion in

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1 min read

Fewer than a dozen legal aid providers in Dudley, figure show

Fewer than a dozen legal aid providers in Dudley, figure show

Fewer than a dozen legal aid providers in Dudley, figure show

FEWER than a dozen legal aid providers were operating in Dudley as of February, new figures show.

The figures come as a professional body color in large areas of England and Wales have no access to some forms of legal aid.

Legal aid is given to those who cannot afford it to cover the costs of legal advice, mediation and representation – with funding ultimately coming from the Government.

Data from the Legal Aid Agency shows there were 11 legal aid providers in Dudley as of February.

The Law Society – a professional association for solicitors – has warned key areas of law such as education, welfare, community care, immigration and housing are suffering from a lack of free legal advice and representation.

It is estimated that 53 million people – or 90 per cent of the population – do not have access to a local legal aid provider for education, and 84 per cent of the population do not have access to one for welfare and benefits issues.

Dudley was among areas without a legal aid provider for law education, and had no providers offering welfare and benefit services.

Across England and Wales there were 21 local areas with no legal aid providers whatsoever.

Assistance with crime and family law are the most common types of legal aid, with 1,684 and 1,434 practices offering them respectively.

There were five for crime and five for family law in Dudley.

The Law Society said a 2012 law which cut the availability of legal aid had a disastrous impact on the ability of victims to seek justice, with funding for free support drying up in many areas.

The number of legal aid cases dropped from more than 900,000 in 2009-10

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2 mins read

Does BC Provide Adequate Legal Aid to Women Escaping Abuse?

“We don’t ask how many people deserve to have their broken bones fixed, so why do we talk about access to the family court in a way that suggests it is optional, or that we’re OK with it being out of reach for most of us?” asked Raji Mangat, the executive director of the West Coast LEAF.

West Coast LEAF is representing the women’s advocacy organization Single Mothers’ Alliance in a constitutional challenge about family law legal aid against the province, and Legal Aid BC, which is currently being heard in the BC Supreme Court.

Initially filed in 2017, the case argues that the province and Legal Aid BC are failing to provide adequate family law legal aid to women leaving abusive relationships.

Legal Aid BC’s annual service plan report for 2020-21 shows that just over half of people who seek legal representation through legal aid for family law matters get it. The rate for people seeking legal aid for other reasons is higher. Over 80 per cent of people seeking legal aid for criminal cases apply successfully, for example.

West Coast LEAF and SMA note that these numbers don’t reflect the needs of women who require legal aid but don’t bother applying at all.

“We’d like to see that all of those who need to access legal remedies through the court system to make themselves and their kids safe should be able to access that support,” Mangat said.

The family court establishes decisions

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2 mins read

BC single mothers suing for right to legal aid, court access

The Single Mothers’ Alliance says a lack of access to legal aid is putting mothers and children at risk.

A BC group representing single mothers is waiting for a BC Supreme Court judge to decide if they can sue the province for better access to legal aid.

The Single Mothers’ Alliance (SMA) filed a court application in February alleging an agreement between the province and the Legal Service Society (now Legal Aid BC) impedes access to justice in family law proceedings.

The alliance is being represented by West Coast Leaf, whose executive director says eligibility requirements are problematic because single mothers must earn about $29,000 for a two-person household to qualify for legal aid.

Raji Mangat says that means many working mothers must represent themselves in what is essentially a “broken” system, leaving some retraumatized because they could be cross-examined by a former partner’s lawyer.

That lack of access, the alliance claims, affects protection of women and children from family violence, hampers guardianship and custody cases and harms parent-child bonds.

The group asserts it violates their charter rights to security of the person and causes severe psychological stress. They further claim the situation violates their constitutional rights to access to the courts.

In order to have the case heard, the group first had to apply for what is known as standing, a legal recognition of their right to bring the case.

Arguments on that issue were heard this week; the judge is now looking over submissions, including those from the provincial government, which opposes the group having standing.

In its Feb. 17 response to the case, the province said the alliance is not the appropriate group to bring the action to court and should be denied standing. The province argued in its response the alliance had not produced any documentation

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1 min read

Justice Canada releases commission report on impact of lack of legal aid in family law disputes

Impacts of limited legal aid

Birnbaum and Bala stressed that the lack of access to family law services and increased self-representation in family proceedings are “growing concerns” in Canada. They found “limited family law funding” as one of the causes of the increasing number of self-represented litigants in family law disputes.

“Increase in self-representation and cuts to legal aid impose significant resource costs on the family justice system, thus negatively impacting the efficiency of the family justice system,” Birnbaum and Bala wrote.

Conclusion

Birnbaum and Bala found that the lack of access to legal aid for family law matters significantly affects women, Indigenous peoples, marginalized groups, and residents of remote and rural communities. Moreover, they found that the effect of the lack of access to legal aid services can lead to serious consequences, such as loss of parenting time, loss of appropriate child and spousal support, and loss of rights to matrimonial property and pensions.

They stressed the need for a “research initiative” in collaboration with researchers, federal, provincial and territorial partners, lawyers, legal organizations, the judiciary, community organizations, and the public to determine the long-term impacts of lack of access to family legal aid and improve the efficiency of legal aid services.

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Almost 30% of queries to free legal advice service related to family law

Almost 30% of all queries to a free legal advice service related to divorce, separation, domestic violence and custody and maintenance issues.



Throughout 2021, Flac held 2,729 consultations at its phone advice clinics (Alamy/PA)


© Provided by PA Media
Throughout 2021, Flac held 2,729 consultations at its phone advice clinics (Alamy/PA)

The Free Legal Advice Centers (Flac), which offers advice to people who cannot afford legal fees, said it is hearing from individuals and families who are under “enormous pressure” in the areas of employment and family law.

Flac said it received 13,147 calls last year, the highest number since 2015, but that many more could not get through.

Eilis Barry, chief executive of Flac, said there is an “ongoing crisis of unmet legal need in this country” and an “overwhelming demand” for legal information and advice.

Throughout 2021, Flac held 2,729 consultations at its phone advice clinics and its independent law center dealt with more than 88 case files.

Ms Barry said: “We are hearing from individuals and families who are under enormous pressure in the areas of employment and family law.

“We could hear people were already stressed by the time they managed to get through to the phoneline.

“Many of their queries were complex and took longer to provide the information they needed.

“Callers were stressed because they didn’t qualify for legal aid, many narrowly missing the means test.

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“In one particular case, a caller was over the legal aid means test by 500 euros and had incurred legal costs in a contested family law matter of in excess of 20,000 euros.”

The organization said that

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1 min read

Florida Divorce Lawyer Russell Knight Discusses the Rules For Common Law Marriages in Naples, Florida

Florida divorce lawyer Russell Knight releases a new article (https://divorceattorneynaplesfl.com/common-law-marriage-in-florida/) explaining the common law marriage rules in Florida. The lawyer mentions that not everyone who was married could register their marriage at the courthouse back in the old days. Most people would only hold a small marriage ceremony and then begin living together. These marriages are commonly known as common-law marriages.

According to the Florida divorce lawyer, “Common-law marriages are marriages that become legal after the couple lives like husband and wife for a long enough period of time. common law marriages no longer exist in Florida the way they once did, but they’re not completely gone.”

Florida divorce lawyer

The lawyer explains that the Florida State Legislature had passed an act that invalidated all common-law marriages that were made after January 1, 1968. This law was adopted in 2016. This law makes all marriages before 1968 valid, even though they may seem unusual these days.

Attorney Russell Knight mentions that common-law marriages in Florida are no longer allowed. Anyone who wants to marry must have a marriage license. The marriage can only be valid in Florida if you have a marriage license.

Attorney Knight explains why it is sometimes difficult to obtain a Florida marriage permit. The law requires that both spouses must be at least 18 years of age. If one spouse is 17 years old, the other spouse shouldn’t be more than 2 years younger. Each spouse must also complete a premarital course.

“If an unmarried couple has a child who has lived in Florida for the last 6 months they have the exact same rights vis-à-vis that child as a married couple. The unmarried couple can and will enter into a parenting plan that will govern their relationship with the child just as a divorcing couple would,”

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