Category: New on Clicklaw

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.

We have recently updated Clicklaw’s common question entitled “We want to start a refugee claim in Canada” to include two new resources from our contributor Legal Services Society. In addition, it also includes a new version of Refugee Hearing Preparation: A Guide for Refugee Claimants, from Kinbrace Community Society.

Legal Services Society published the new publications shortly after changes to Canada’s asylum system came into effect on December 15th last year.

• Refugee Claim Flow Chart explains the process involved and outlines the steps for refugee claimants.
• Need Help with Your Refugee Claim? outlines legal aid coverage for refugees and LSS’ immigration phone service in a bilingual infocard.

More resources on the subject are available on Clicklaw under the subtopic “refugees“. Another useful resource is the page “I want to claim refugee status in Canada” in the Legal Help for British Columbians Clicklaw wikibook.