As Clicklaw Manager Drew Jackson is currently taking a leave, we are fortunate to have Brenda Rose stepping in as Clicklaw Project Coordinator beginning October 6th. Brenda has worked for many years in the Legal Services Society’s Community and Publishing Services, and has been contributing to Clicklaw as a member of the editorial review committee.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about Clicklaw you can contact Johanne Blenkin, Executive Director of Courthouse Libraries BC, or Janet Freeman, Clicklaw Co-editor at editor@clicklaw.bc.ca 

The UBC Law Students Legal Advice Program (LSLAP) Manual, 2009 version, was added to Clicklaw on September 16. The Manual contains 23 chapters of legal topics, plus one chapter of referral resources.

People’s Law School added a series of animated videos and factsheets to Clicklaw this week. The series explores problems that arise with credit cards with the following video titles: What’s a Credit Card?, It’s Not Free Money!, Call the Company!, and Ask For Help!. The four fact sheet titles are: What is a Credit Card?, What Does a Credit Card Cost?, Lost or Stolen Cards and Chargebacks , and What to Do When You Are in Debt.

The BC Centre for Elder Advocacy & Support (BC CEAS) launched a new website in July which features their services such as the Seniors Help and Information Line, the Elder Law Clinic and an online Ask a Legal Question service. BC CEAS publications are also listed on Clicklaw, and include Fact Sheets on Abuse of Older Adults, Reporting Crimes to the Police and What Happens When You Make a Report, Where to Get Legal Help, Giving Other People Authority to Help You Manage Your Affairs, and Identity Theft: Now What Do I Do?

Now that Clicklaw has been up and running for a few months, we’re going to start highlighting some of the new resources coming on to the site. New to Clicklaw in the last week are:

• KidsBC.ca: Explore Changeville, from the Justice Education Society, is an animated, interactive website designed to help BC children in dealing with divorce and separation. Kids, as well as parents and professionals, can explore the virtual city “Changeville” to learn about the legal process of divorce, discover informative activities, and identify ways to deal with a family breakup.
• Your Guide to the Refugee Claim Process, from Legal Services Society, explains the process of seeking refugee protection in Canada. It offers straightforward information about how to start a claim in BC, the overall process, how to fill out the forms for each stage, and where to get legal and other help.

One of the goals of the Clicklaw project is to help identify gaps in the public legal education and information (PLEI) that is available to British Columbians. The idea was that in developing a website that provided one-stop access to PLEI in BC, we would have a clearer picture of what is currently available. We could then do some analysis that would help identify gaps in PLEI.

To lead this analysis, we recruited two leading PLEI experts: Gayla Reid, who led the research, and Carol McEown. We are delighted to be releasing the report they have written: Clicklaw and Beyond: Public Legal Education and Information Materials in BC (PDF, 1.3 MB).

There are gaps for some of the “legal problems of everyday life” 

One of the themes emerging from the report is that a number of “legal problems of everyday life” are not extensively covered by resources available through Clicklaw. For example, from the research into legal needs, the two areas with the highest incidence of legal problems are consumer problems and debt/money problems. Yet, as we can see from this chart of the number of resources on Clicklaw in each topic area, consumer and particularly debt are well down the list.

Lack of “middle-ground information”

Another theme emerging from the “Clicklaw and Beyond” report is that in areas where there are gaps, often what is missing can be described as “middle-ground information.” These are resources that go into enough detail to identify major user issues, answer key questions, and provide options and referrals. Typically, a gap area provides overview information and in some but not all instances moves on to advanced information, such as the LSLAP manual used by law students working in legal clinics.

Matrix of gaps

The ”Clicklaw and Beyond” report includes a matrix of gaps, where across Clicklaw’s 27 topic areas, gaps are identified as being large, medium or small. The matrix focuses on gaps in content areas where the research suggests there are client needs. It takes a quantitative approach, in that it looks at the number of resources rather than their depth or quality. This is admittedly imperfect. It is intended to be a starting point, to spark discussion and exploration of what new work needs to be done in providing legal education and information to the public in BC.

The full 70 page report can be downloaded here (PDF, 1.3 MB). If you’d like a printed copy of the report, let us know at editor@clicklaw.bc.ca and we’ll send you one. (And yes, the report is available through Clicklaw!)

It’s been a fun two months since the launch of the Clicklaw beta. We’re learning lots through our usability testing and user feedback survey that will inform some adjustments to the site over the summer to improve its usability. Meanwhile, word is starting to spread about Clicklaw. It’s really cool to see the interest and support from so many perspectives:

• From the organizations participating in Clicklaw, such as Legal Services Society in their ELAN newsletter for community workers and the Canadian Bar Association BC Branch in their BarTalk magazine (the cover story – cool!).
  

  “The simplicity of Clicklaw belies the amazing technology and research behind it. … The list of the founding contributors runs the gamut of BC institutions committed to educating the public about the law.”
  - “Clicking for Justice” in the June issue of The Canadian Bar Association BC Branch’s BarTalk magazine

• From the public library community, such as Vancouver Public Library. VPL put on a set of Clicklaw training sessions for their staff and for the public in the first week after the launch of the Clicklaw beta (incredibly brave!). Librarian Guy Cribdon of VPL did an interview about Clicklaw on CBC radio’s “On the Coast” with Stephen Quinn. I wish we could post the full interview, as I couldn’t have done any better at explaining the problem that Clicklaw is trying to help solve:
  

  “In the library, a lot of people come to us dealing with real-life situations and they don’t have the legal background, the understanding of the language to read statutes and regulations and things like that. They’re looking for something that’s in understandable language and they’re looking for materials that are current and reliable. … What Clicklaw can do and what we try to do in libraries is put people in touch with information resources so that they can hopefully head off problems before they develop and get some guidance from the information that’s there.”
  - Guy Cribdon, Vancouver Public Library, in an interview on CBC radio’s On the Coast

• From law librarians and lawyers, such as Steve Matthews’ Vancouver Law Librarian Blog and Shannon Salter’s Rights & Remedies blog.

“The site is still in beta, but looks to have the framework to evolve into a true portal for BC legal content. And given the audience, which is clearly defined as the general public, I thought the work done on the site’s navigation was excellent. There’s a good mix of iconic and textual navigation elements, and the language used is equally clear.”
- “New BC PLE Portal: Clicklaw” on the Vancouver Law Librarian Blog

Last week Janet Freeman and I presented a workshop at the Beyond Hope Library Conference 2009, a biannual library conference organized by the Prince George Public Library. The conference was fantastic, bringing together library staff from across northern BC.

Our workshop was “Legal Jeopardy for Librarians.” With an eye to the Jeopardy game show format, we developed questions that highlighted the kinds of legal information that is available through Clicklaw as well as through public libraries in BC. (Janet coordinates the LawMatters project at Courthouse Libraries BC, where we’re working with public libraries around the province to enhance their collections of plain language legal materials and their ability to answer legal reference questions.)

It was a highly fun session to do. We had presented a similar workshop at the BC Library Conference 2009 in April. Both times, the librarians were amazing, getting the answers to all sorts of questions, including this one about receiving an eviction notice because of unpaid rent:

This week and next we’re conducting usability testing of the beta Clicklaw site. The testing is to ensure the site navigation and design is effective and efficient for users.

We’re using the think-aloud protocol, where participants are asked to think aloud as they are performing a set of tasks on the site. The tasks feature scenarios developed to fit the various personas we developed earlier in the Clicklaw project. So for example, a scenario for the independent problem solver persona involves finding information explaining what to do as executor of a will.

We’re conducting the testing in two settings – a low-key testing lab at the Courthouse Library in Vancouver (as pictured here), and at two locations of the Vancouver Public Library. For the testing at the public library branches, which we’re calling “guerilla testing,” the idea is to go to where the users are and recruit participants on the fly, doing short, informal testing. It’s an experiment in trying to reach users who might otherwise not find us to participate.

Clicklaw is now live at www.clicklaw.bc.ca. On launch, the site features legal information and education resources aimed at the public from the 24 organizations that have been formally participating in Clicklaw. The site is launching as a beta website, which means that we’ll be continually working on improving the site and adding more features and resources in the months ahead. See what’s coming soon to Clicklaw.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about this beta version of Clicklaw. Please consider taking our short feedback survey, or feel free to offer comments about the Clicklaw beta below.