Difference between revisions of "Introduction to Legal Help for British Columbians"

{{Template:Legal Help Guide TOC}}''[[Legal Help for British Columbians]]'' is a resource for non-legal professionals in British Columbia who have clients or patients with legal problems and little money to deal with them.

It is meant to help you:

*guide your client or patient in taking the ''first steps'' toward addressing their legal problem, and

*make the best ''referrals'' for your client or patient to information, assistance, advice or <span class="noglossary">representation</span> to address the legal issue.

Because legal resources are often not available locally in many areas of British Columbia, the usual first "point of <span class="noglossary">contact</span>" to get help with a legal problem is not a lawyer or legally trained advocate, but a friend or helping professional such as a counsellor, doctor, nurse, teacher, government worker, public librarian, or religious leader.

It is hoped that this Guide <span class="noglossary">will</span> help you — the friend or helping professional — provide basic information and appropriate referrals to friends, clients or patients who find themselves with common legal problems.

 

There are three parts to this Guide:

* The Guide concludes with [[Preparing for Your Interview| a form to help a client]] '''prepare for their interview'''. When completed, it <span class="noglossary">will</span> contain a lot of the information a lawyer or advocate <span class="noglossary">will</span> want to know at a first interview with a client.

Leading the writing of this Guide is founding author [[Cliff Thorstenson]], who works with a [[Legal Help Guide Contributors|team of reviewers and contributors]] in updating the Guide. ''Legal Help for British Columbians'' was the first [[Clicklaw Wikibooks|Clicklaw Wikibook]], which are collaboratively developed, plain language legal publications that are published and kept up-to-date on a wiki, where they can also be printed and downloaded. The author and contributors update the Guide online on Clicklaw Wikibooks at wiki.clicklaw.bc.ca, which should be consulted for the most recent information on topics covered by this Guide.

A special thanks to [[Allan Parker, QC]], Andree Harley, Linda Locke, QC, and Glen Ferrier for their input and assistance with initial development of this Guide. Also, thank you to the [http://www.lawfoundationbc.org Law Foundation of British Columbia] for providing the funding and to Jill Veitch for editing and layout support for the first two editions.