Lawyers & The Law Society

Lawyers are people with special legal training (and a law degree) who are licenced to practice law by their province's law society. Litigants are the parties to a court proceeding, the people who are suing someone or the people who are being sued. Since many people involved in a family law dispute haven't had to deal with lawyers before, these pages are about your relationship with your lawyer.

These pages provide an overview of the lawyer-client relationship. They also discuss how to find and hire a lawyer, how your lawyer bills for his or her services, how you or your lawyer can end the lawyer-client relationship, and what you can do if you're not happy with your lawyer.

Introduction

All lawyers in British Columbia are members of the Law Society of British Columbia. Many are also members of the Canadian Bar Association and local bar associations like the Vancouver Bar Association or the the Victoria Bar Association. The Law Society's primary purpose is to govern and regulate lawyers in order to protect the public interest. As officers of the court and as members of the Law Society, lawyers are held to a high standard of conduct.

Your lawyer's primary job is to protect and advance your legal interests. At the same time, your lawyer must follow this high standard of conduct and act at all times in an ethical manner. Lawyers' duties to their clients, to each other and to the courts are governed by:

1. the provincial Legal Profession Act;
2. the Law Society Rules; and,
3. the Law Society's Professional Conduct Handbook.

Boiling all this down, your lawyer performs two key roles. First, your lawyer is like a plumber: if you tell your plumber to install your sink, he or she installs your sink. On the other hand, if you tell your plumber to hook the hot water pipe up to the ice-making machine intake, you'd expect your plumber to give you some common sense advice about why that might be a bad idea. Second, your lawyer is like a champion: your lawyer is your sword and shield, protecting you from some of the more unpleasant and adversarial aspects of litigation while boldly pursuing your claim.

Both of these analogies are rather cheesy but apt. You should expect your lawyer to take the heat for you and fearlessly advance your claim. While you should expect your lawyer to do just what you tell him or her to do, you should also expect your lawyer to give you good advice if your instructions are not in your best interests, and perhaps even refuse to accept your instructions. You should especially expect your lawyer to tell you if what you want to do will be harmful to your case.

Some lawyers are also mediators. Lawyers who are accredited family law mediators have special, additional training in mediation. Family law mediators do not act for you or your spouse as a lawyer in the usual solicitor-client relationship; they are providing mediation services to the both of you, rather than advocacy services for just one of you. Lawyers who act as mediators are neither party's champion.

The website of the Law Society of British Columbia is an extremely helpful resource for people who have hired a lawyer or people who are thinking of retaining a lawyer. It provides a lot of information about the lawyer-client relationship and about lawyers' ethical duties to their clients.