Legal Help

Legal Aid BC provides free help for people in BC who have serious legal problems and can’t pay for a lawyer. Legal aid can be legal information, advice, or representation.

If your income is below a certain amount, you may be able to get a legal aid lawyer to help in these situations.

• You believe the social worker is investigating you.
• You believe the social worker is about to take your child away from you.
• The social worker removed your child from your home.
• You’re trying to work out an agreement with the social worker and you need advice from a lawyer about what to do.
• You need a lawyer to help you at a meeting with the social worker.
• You worked out an agreement with the social worker and they want you to sign it.
• You must go to court.
• The social worker plans to apply for a supervision order or custody order for your child.
• Your child is in foster care and you’re trying to visit your child or increase your visits (access).
• You want to get permission to bring your child back home.
• A court ruled the director will care for your child (foster care) for the long term, and you just learned the director is trying to give custody of your child to someone else from now on.
• You’re pregnant and concerned the director may be involved when your child is born. You may be concerned because you dealt with the director about another child. Or the director told you they’re concerned about your unborn child.

To find out if you qualify for a legal aid lawyer and what help you can get:

• Call Legal Aid BC or the Parents Legal Centre.
• Visit a legal aid location.

Legal Aid BC provides free lawyers, called family duty counsel. They provide limited legal help if you don’t have a lawyer, or don’t qualify for a regular legal aid lawyer.

• Family duty counsel have offices in Provincial Courts and in some Supreme Courts. They can give you brief advice about your legal rights and options and information about court procedures.
• They can also speak for you in court sometimes, but they don’t represent you.

Children 12 or older may have the right to have their own lawyer in these situations:

• Your child and the social worker don’t agree about your child’s care.
• Your child has questions about the court process a lawyer could explain.
• You’re signing a consent order that affects your child.
• The social worker is making a final decision about where your child will live.

Your child can also be added as a party to the case. A party is a person involved in the court case and can speak directly to the judge or have a lawyer speak for them. The judge must consider all parties’ views. You, your child, or the social worker can ask the judge for your child to be made a party.

Once a child is made a party, it’s easier for the social worker to ask the judge to appoint a lawyer for your child. Your child can have a lawyer even if the judge hasn’t made them a party to the proceeding.

If you have questions about getting your child a lawyer, ask an advocate, community worker, lawyer, or family duty counsel for help.

The Society for Children and Youth of BC offers legal services and advocates for children in BC. Youth can call and ask for legal support or services for themselves.

If your income is too high for you to qualify for a legal aid lawyer, you may be able to get help from lawyers at pro bono legal clinics in BC.

Access Pro Bono Society of BC gives free legal advice to people who can’t afford a lawyer. Their lawyers help you prepare to go to court, but they don’t write your documents or go to court for you. You can meet with a lawyer for free at their legal clinics throughout BC, or get 15 minutes of free consultation through the Lawyer Referral Service.

Community Legal Clinic (Thompson Rivers University) gives free legal help and advice at the legal clinic in Kamloops for people who can’t afford a lawyer.

Indigenous Community Legal Clinic (University of British Columbia) gives free legal help to Indigenous people who can’t afford a lawyer.

Law Students’ Legal Advice Program (University of British Columbia) runs free legal advice clinics in Greater Vancouver for people who can’t afford a lawyer.

Rise Women’s Legal Centre gives up to three hours of free legal advice to self-identifying women. After that, they may charge you on a sliding scale from $25 to $100 an hour if your income is over their maximum limit.

The Law Centre (University of Victoria) gives free legal advice, assistance, and representation in their student-staffed legal clinic to people living in the Capital Regional District who can’t afford a lawyer.

A lawyer can:

• tell you what your rights are when you deal with the director
• tell you about the legal process and explain your options
• tell you about other ways to do things besides going to court, such as mediation and case conferences, and help you prepare for them
• give you advice about a safety plan or written agreement with the director before you sign it, or help you to make a written agreement with the director
• go with you to court or the case conference and speak for you, according to what you decide to do

To make the best use of your time with any lawyer, you can:

• before you meet, write out what happened and when, what you’d like to have happen, and questions you have for the lawyer or the social worker

• show your lawyer all the papers you received from the social worker tell your lawyer everything they need to know to represent you

When a social worker investigates a report about your child’s safety, you may be able to get help from an advocate or community worker. An advocate isn’t a lawyer, and their services are usually free.

An advocate or community worker may help you:

• find a lawyer or apply for legal aid
• answer questions about how the child protection process works
• explain your choices to address the child protection concerns
• go to meetings with you and help explain your side of the story
• work out solutions with the social worker to meet their expectations
• connect you with services for housing, substance use, counselling, recovery, and mental health
• support you when you go to court with your lawyer

• Advocates work at places such as Parents Legal Centres, transition houses, women’s centres, immigrant or cultural agencies, Indigenous friendship centres, or Indigenous family centres.
• Victims’ assistance program staff often know about the child protection process and can be helpful.
• Some Indigenous communities have staff to help with child protection issues.
• If your community doesn’t have these services, ask at a local information centre or public library for where you may get help.
• You can find names of advocates on the PovNet website (see page 51).

Sometimes you may also want to have a trusted friend, family member, spiritual leader, or other supportive person help you to ask questions and keep track of information. This person is called an informal advocate. They may go with you to court, conferences with the social worker, and meetings with your lawyer. Your informal advocate may also speak for you if you ask for that.

Be sure to ask any advocates you contact if they know about child protection law. If they don’t know, ask where you could get help from someone who does know.