Author: Clicklaw Editor

At Clicklaw, we’re delighted to announce the launch of the 3rd edition of Legal Help for British Columbians as a Clicklaw wikibook. This popular guide is a quick reference, plain-language tool for non-legal professionals whose clients or patients have urgent legal problems. Covering common legal problems faced by low income clients in BC, the Guide outlines first steps to address the problems, as well as where to go to get further information and assistance.

Highlights of the new edition include:

1. New format:  The Clicklaw wikibook format allows us to work collaboratively with a dozen contributors and reviewers from the legal community and public legal education and information community.  The new format is also easier to use and search for information in the Guide than is the case for a PDF document (previous editions of the Guide were posted on the Internet as PDF documents).
2. New sections: We’ve added 10 new common legal problems to the Guide, as well as new chapters on immigration and mental health.
3. Updated information throughout: Our group of volunteers has reviewed the entire Guide and is committed to making updates to the Clicklaw wikibook as the law and resources change.

We’re excited about our first Clicklaw wikibook and we’d love your thoughts and comments! Have a look, and let us know what you think.

More information about the Clicklaw wikibook can be found in this one page announcement and this news release.

LawMatters At Your Local Public Library  is a unique outreach program of the Courthouse Libraries BC. Begun as a project in April 2007, and becoming an ongoing Client Services program in 2010, LawMatters helps public libraries enhance their legal information collections and provides training for public library staff. Together, LawMatters and BC’s public libraries aim to ensure that all BC residents have local access to basic legal information.

Their latest report, Talking to Librarians about LawMatters: Promising Practices,  is now on Clicklaw. This 2011 paper summarizes the findings of a phone survey of 20 public libraries across BC and identifies practices that enhance library staff’s ability to provide legal information.

One of the outcomes of the report is that, in moving forward, a key role for LawMatters in sustaining legal reference services is providing opportunities for ongoing training.  According to program coordinator Janet Freeman, LawMatters will be sponsoring two webinars this spring for public librarians on the topic of Residential Tenancy Law. The webinars will be offered through the Libraries and Literacy Program of the BC Ministry of Education.

To read more from LawMatters see their 2010 report LawMatters At Your Local Public Library: A Report for Public Librarians.