Author: Audrey Jun

Audrey Jun is the Clicklaw Program Coordinator at Courthouse Libraries BC. She manages Clicklaw, working to connect people across the varied public legal education landscape. Audrey was called to the BC Bar in 2014 and combines backgrounds in law, public legal education, and technology.

New Fact Sheet on Refusing Health Care: What are my Rights?

Community posts

Early 2015 has been a year of landmark cases, about physician-assisted dying in the Supreme Court of Canada, in addition to the Margot Bentley decision at the BC Court of Appeal.

nidus_new

This fact sheet addresses the law in BC

Most of the information available online is academic and focuses on what this means for legislatures (law-makers), but these decisions have implications for Canadians, and people in British Columbia. Different changes to the law could be made across Canada and in each province.

A new fact sheet produced by Nidus answers questions of more interest to the everyday person living in BC, such as:

  • Can I refuse health care? (Yes, there is law in BC saying that if you are 19 years or older and are “capable of informed consent”, you have the right to make your own decisions about care.)
  • Can I request help with dying when I am ready? (The short answer is no, but watch for changes.)
  • If I am incapable, can someone refuse care on my behalf?
    • What are the legal documents that apply?
  • Can a doctor refuse to give me life-supporting care? (This can be a confusing area of the law.)
    • What is the No CPR (Do Not Resuscitate) form?
  •  Is there a Registry for my documents? (Yes.)

To read more about the law in BC that governs giving, refusing and withdrawing consent for health care, see the new fact sheet by Nidus directly on their website here, and through the Clicklaw website here along with their other resources.

Introducing the CanLII Primer from the National Self-Represented Litigants Project

Community posts

Today’s guest blog post features a new resource for those preparing for the presentation of their cases — in court, in chambers, or as part of a negotiation or mediation. It focuses on how to navigate CanLII, a free legal online service. This resource is available via Clicklaw.

By Dr. Julie MacfarlaneNSLRP
Professor of Law at the University of Windsor & Project Director

As part of my 2011-12 study of the experiences of self-represented litigants (SRLs) in Alberta, BC and Ontario, I asked each of the 259 SRLs I interviewed to tell me what was the most useful on-line resource they had used in preparing their case.

By far the greatest number singled out CanLII, the Canadian electronic case and legislation database. One told me “CanLII is the best thing for a self represented person ever…” Many talked about the hours they spent poring over cases in CanLII.

CanLII received a million hits – in March 2015. How many of those were self-represented litigants, I wonder? Continue reading