Law Times

Page 8 NOVeMBeR 9, 2015 • LaW TIMeS www.lawtimesnews.com New projects for self-represented parties in the works Coaching touted as a way to guide litigants through the family law system BY JUDY VAN RHIJN For Law Times s concern about the affordability of family law ser- vices grows, the legal community is launching two new projects aimed at helping self-represented litigants navigate the system as se- lective consumers of legal se rvices on limited budgets. One of the projects is a step- by-step guide to the family law process that can be embedded in any web site. The other is a coaching model that provides legal information rather than advice. Between them, the goal is to help clarify the choices for those who can only afford par- tial representation. The entire family law sec- tor has been grappling with the overwhelming increase in self- represented litigants. Part of the response is an evolving trend to move the focus from teaching people to handle their own legal representation to assisting them with understanding the steps and getting appropriate help when they need it. Julie Mathews, exe- cutive director of Community Legal Education Ontario, says her organization recognized the need to rethink and rework the way the justice system conceives of and delivers le- gal and court services. In res- ponse, it's launching a pilot of its Steps to Justice project this month and is aiming for a full launch next year. Steps to Justice is an effort to provide reliable and ac- cessible information online about common legal problems initially in the areas of family, housing, and employment law. Mathews says the information will be available in short steps with links to fillable forms, self-help guides, and other process-related materials. It will also provide access to referral information for so- cial and legal services so that people can recognize when they need to seek outside help and where to get it. "It is aimed at low- and mo- derate-income people who are experiencing common legal pro- blems," says Mathews. "It is presented in a way that people with some digital lite- racy skills can access. The in- formation is offered in a ques- tion-and-answer format. Every answer has three to five next steps with practical tips, forms, and templates." Rather than simply building the project into the organiza- tion's web site, the plan is to make the program generally available. "The idea is for core content to be available for embedding and presenting on anyone's web site," says Mathews. "Different associations can go to a widget, pick the area of content they want, and embed the whole thing or a subtopic in the way the Superior Court of Justice has CanLII embedded in its site. So regardless of a person's web entry point, they can get to that information. There have been many partners involved in the development phase, so we will see if different associations are willing to take the program on board. CLEO intends to keep the content updated." Another new program fresh off the starting block is the Fa- mily Law Coaching project offered jointly by the Univer- sity of Windsor Faculty of Law, Pro Bono Students Canada in Windsor, Ont., and the National Self-Represented Litigants pro- ject. The idea is to match self-re- presented litigants with Windsor law students who will provide one-on-one legal information, moral support, and community referrals under the supervision of a practising lawyer. The program will help guide litigants through the process of choosing what to do and when to seek help. Julie Macfarlane, a law profes- sor at the University of Windsor, says the project follows a major study on the needs of self-re- presented litigants. "The coaching concept developed directly from the stories of people looking for legal help and not getting it that [litigants] told us in the research for our national self-represented litigants re- search study. This is where the coaching concept came from. It is practicalized as unbundled legal services or a limited-scope retainer. But this is only the mechanical aspect. To offer effective coa- ching, lawyers need to adjust what they actually do when they work with clients. This centres on accepting the rea- lity that those they offer coa- ching to will do at least some of their case on their own." Macfarlane believes it's a model that lawyers could adopt as a niche service. "Instead of telling the client, 'This is what your case looks like — leave it to me,' their advice in a coaching model has to be: 'This is what you need to do to progress your case. Tell me what you would like me to handle, and I shall coach you to do the rest yourself.'" Sue Rice, program manager of the National Self-Represented Litigants project, notes five law students have completed their training and are in the process of arranging their first meetings with their assigned litigants. They'll work with them until the end of March. "We have self- reps lining up," says Rice. "A shortage of self-reps is never going to be an issue. There are not many places for them to turn." Macfarlane believes the ap- proach offers a greater opportu- nity. "I think this is a real market, not just a volunteer opportunity. We need to move away from our reliance on pro bono and vo- lunteers to solve the problem of access to justice. The problem is just too big to be solved that way now." LT 'The idea is for core content to be available for embedding and presenting on anyone's web site,' says Julie Mathews. FOCUS ON Family Law A Untitled-1 1 2015-11-04 9:19 AM Promote your law firm by ordering reprints of articles from the voice of the profession — Law Times! 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