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Oct. 6, 2006
Dealing with legal problems
Here's a guide to getting some good advice at a reasonable price.
MONIKA ULLMANN
When it comes to the law, most people don't know that much about
it, except that everybody is supposed to be equal before it. In
practice, this ideal can be difficult to achieve. Just finding affordable
legal help that is appropriate for your particular problem can be
a tricky and time-consuming business, especially when you're feeling
stressed. Here are a few simple guidelines.
If you fall into the category of people who aren't flush with cash
and if your case isn't about personal injury, divorce or of a criminal
nature, you have two relatively low-cost options. For landlord/tenant
disputes, there is the Residential Tenancy Office. If your landlord
freaks out on you and hands you an eviction notice based on nothing
but spite and then, when you decide not to get into a big ugly fight
with him and instead move out as fast as is humanly possible, he
cooks up a story about some old drapes you supposedly "lost"
and simply deducts the "cost" from your damage deposit
and adds a few "missing items" so that you owe him money
– call them.
That's what happened to Carmen Schmid, a busy local wedding and
family portrait photographer. "I finally had to face the fact
that I needed legal help to settle this," she said. But she
found that getting help involved a great deal of time. She said
even getting an appointment took several calls and idling on hold
for up to 45 minutes. When she got there, she had to stand in line
for another hour.
"They're just incredibly understaffed over there," she
said, adding that, "I got valuable advice from them about my
case and they told me that what my landlord was doing was illegal,
so I entered into an arbitration process. But even that is going
to take time."
And money. To her surprise, it cost $50 to register for the arbitration
process.
Landlord/tenant disputes are extremely common and, in some jurisdictions,
there is no mediating body like this. Calgary, for example, has
no such office, so if you don't like getting monthly rent hikes,
which is legal in Alberta, all you can do is move out. Or move back
to British Columbia.
If the dispute involves relatively small amounts of money –
up to a maximum of $25,000 – and your budget looks anemic,
then small claims court is a good choice. The civil division of
the B.C. Provincial Court is basically a do-it-yourself court, where
the rules and procedures are less formal and complex than in the
Supreme Court. Forms are the fill-in-the-blank type and there are
eight booklets to guide you through the process. They are online
and available at the courthouse. Note that small claims court does
not try cases involving landlord/tenant disputes, libel and slander
and land title disputes.
If you win your case, you are not guaranteed that you can collect,
however. Some people simply will not pay, or cannot pay. It is extremely
unlikely that people get jail time for not paying up, so carefully
considering the likely outcome of small claims court trial is recommended.
But some situations require a lawyer. Divorce, personal injury and
slander are among them.
Peter Nadler, a general litigator with 25 years of experience in
criminal, civil and commercial law, agreed that legal aid organizations
are under-funded and under-staffed. He said that finding a good
lawyer isn't simply a matter of looking in the Yellow Pages.
"Would you look for a brain surgeon there?" he asked.
"Personal injury work or divorce isn't a slap-dash thing and
getting a bargain basement lawyer can cost you." He recalled
a time when it was deemed unseemly for lawyers to advertise. "I
don't advertise at all; it's all word of mouth referrals,"
he said. He believes that word of mouth or asking a lawyer who may
have done something else for you for a referral is a good way to
find someone trustworthy.
Looking for a good fit can take time, he said. Shop around and get
quotes. If you don't like the person, try someone else. There is
also a referral service run by the Law Society of British Columbia,
but it is a blind service‚ based strictly on where the office
happens to be. Some of the private referral systems online are not
run by lawyers and do not screen their members. "They're all
about money," said Nadler. However, there is a brand new online
referral system, Law Assist Inc., started by Lisa Gelman in Toronto,
that does screen its members and is affiliated with a large employee
assistance program. They now have 700 lawyers on their roster, including
some in Vancouver.
Once you've found the right lawyer, get your document ducks in order.
Don't waste time and money by being disorganized. "Clients
either come with a shoebox of papers or just too little information
and they expect everything to happen right away," said Nadler.
Bottom line: be organized and be patient. It's called a trial for
a reason.
For more information, you can contact the Vancouver small claims
court at 604-660-8989 or www.ag.gov.bc.ca/courts/civil/smallclaims:
it is located at 800 Hornby St. For landlord/tenant disputes, you
can contact the Residential Tenancy Office at 604-660-1020 or 1-800-665-8779,
or visit its website, www.rto.gov.bc.ca.
Gelman of Law Assist Inc. can be reached by calling 416-665-2137
or e-mailing [email protected].
Monika Ullmann is a Vancouver freelance writer and editor.
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