Law Times

Page 4 April 16, 2018 • lAw Times www.lawtimesnews.com Initiative looks to boost unbundled services BY ALEX ROBINSON Law Times A group of legal scholars and lawyers is launch- ing a project that seeks to expand the use of unbundled legal services for family law cases in Ontario. The three-year initiative will train family lawyers to provide a number of limited-scope servic- es including family legal coach- ing and private-duty counsel services. Those lawyers will then be listed on a provincewide roster to connect them with po- tential clients. Those involved with the project say it will affect the way lawyers practise family law, as they will not be involved with cases from beginning to end. And for lawyers who start to develop a coaching practice, the changes might be even more sig- nificant. "It will mean more lawyers will be doing this kind of work," says Nicholas Bala, a law pro- fessor with Queens University, who is involved in a research component of the project that will look at the perceptions, ad- vantages and limitations of un- bundled services. Bala says that litigants who want this kind of service often can't find lawyers who are will- ing to provide it. The project will look to tackle that shortage by training lawyers in how to provide these kinds of services effectively, profitably and safely, as liability has been a concern for practitio- ners when considering whether to offer limited-scope retainers. The initiative's organizers are hoping it will also fuel demand for such services by educating the public, judges and mediators about them. Nikki Gershbain, national director of Pro Bono Students Canada, says there is currently a dissonance between the number of people who could benefit from limited-scope services and the number of people who are aware that such services even exist. "It's going to be important to educate the public so that they are aware of the fact that legal services and hiring a lawyer is not an all-or-nothing proposi- tion," says Gershbain, who is on the advisory committee for the project. "There is this — what we would call — halfway house between full representation and no representation." Lawyers say there is a huge untapped market in the family law area for self-represented liti- gants who could afford some le- gal representation but not a full retainer. A report conducted by the Ryerson Legal Innovation Zone has estimated the value of this market at between $40 million and $200 million a year. Gershbain says the project's educational component will be key in order to connect a supply of lawyers with demand. She says lawyers currently have little incentive to invest time and resources into devel- oping limited-scope practices, as they do not see the demand out there. But as the public does not know about the existence of such services, they aren't de- manding them. "This is the catch-22 that we're in right now," she says. As there are not a lot of law- yers that offer these services, most people do not even know they exist as a practice model. The development and pro- motion of the roster will be key to break out of this, she says. "Once the public knows it exists and once the profession is offering it on a large scale, at that point, we're not only help- ing people but creating an ac- cess to justice solution." As the Law Society of On- tario is opening up the scope of family law to allow paralegals to provide some services in the area, Bala says, there will also be an increased need for lawyers to take files that have been started by paralegals. A number of organizations collaborated on the initiative, including the Ontario Bar As- sociation, the Federation of Ontario Law Associations and the Advocates' Society, as well as family law associations. The Law Foundation of On- tario has provided $250,000 in funding for the project over three years. The roster will be on a web- site and will include informa- tion about lawyers who have undergone the initiative's train- ing in limited-scope services. Lawyers wishing to be listed will have to complete manda- tory training. Bala says the initiative will also likely have implications eventually for other areas of practice where self-represented litigants might need a lawyer for just one stage of the process and cannot afford to retain someone for a whole case. Bala adds that similar proj- ects have been launched in B.C. and Alberta but the Ontario initiative is more ambitious be- cause of its research and educa- tional components. The group is looking to hire a project director to oversee the initiative, which will start with a pilot project this spring in Barrie, Ont. The provincewide project will then launch in the fall. LT NEWS NEWS NEWS 6TH ANNUAL BENCH & BAR YOUNG LAWYERS SOIREE Register now or contact us at tlaonline.ca | info@tlaonline.ca Called to the Bar less than 10 years ago? Then consider yourself called to this event! WHEN Thursday, May 3, 2018 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Opening remarks at 6:00 p.m. by Kenneth J. Fredeen, General Counsel, Secretary of the Board at Deloitte. Registration is free for TLA Members. Non-members $20. SPONSORED BY THOMSON REUTERS Untitled-3 1 2018-04-11 9:50 AM Nikki Gershbain says there is currently a dissonance between the number of people who could benefit from limited-scope ser- vices and the number of people aware that such services even exist. It will mean more lawyers will be doing this kind of work. Nicholas Bala

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