Author: Clicklaw Editor

You are facing a legal problem and you have reached a point where you decide to hire a lawyer.  You want to make sure you use their time well, but how do you do that?    The Law Society of British Columbia has published a number of helpful guides to assist clients who are seeking legal assistance and generally trying to learn more about lawyers’ professional code of conduct.

You and Your Lawyer is a brochure that describes the working relationship between lawyer and client.  Here you will find out about when to seek legal services, how to prepare for your initial meeting with your lawyer, how lawyers set their fees as well as ways to reduce your legal costs.

 Sometimes, you may have a complaint about your lawyer. Complaints About Lawyers explains what types of complaints the Law Society can investigate, and how to go about filing a complaint. It’s also a good source for finding out about professional standards and ethics governing lawyers.       

 Clicklaw offers complementary resources on this topic.  Check out our commonly asked questions:  My lawyer’s bill is too high , How do I make a complaint against my lawyer?

Do you know that Clicklaw has the Reform & Research section? It connects British Columbians to publications from organizations that work to improve and reform the laws, as well as to advance innovative solutions to meet legal needs in BC. One of them is our contributor BC Law Institute, the effective successor of the now-defunct BC Law Reform Commission. They have recently made three of their current projects available on Clicklaw.

• Technology, Remoteness, Disability & Evidence Project aims to generate practice support materials for lawyers and others about technologies to remove or reduce the disadvantages that persons with disabilities or those living in remote areas face when required to give evidence in court or before tribunals.
• Franchise Act Project considers the need for franchise legislation in BC and, in doing so, reviews the Uniform Franchises Act adopted by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada in 2005. The Act’s key provisions include dealing with disclosure, the duty of fair dealing, rights to rescission, damages for misrepresentation, and dispute resolution.
• Rationalizing and Harmonization of BC Common-Law Tests of Capacity. The project studies common-law tests of mental capacity, the legal threshold after which a person is considered mentally incapable in the eyes of the law. The goals are to study and illuminate selected common-law tests of capacity, to determine where the current law has shortcomings that require modernization or harmonization, and to recommend legislative reforms to address those shortcomings.

Check out more reports from BC Law Institute, or learn more about BC’s legal needs & innovative solutions on Clicklaw.