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| Jo-Anne Stark |
I recently attended a seminar where lawyers were talking about the fact that our law society has introduced an “innovation sandbox”; I’m unclear what that means, but they were saying that non-lawyers now have authority to provide legal advice without any regulation or oversight. How can having non-lawyers offer legal services be in the best interest of the public?
Rest assured, the profession is not going to disappear any time soon — people and corporations will still need lawyers and law firms to represent them! The fact is that for at least a decade, many Canadians (in fact, most middle-class people) facing everyday legal problems find that they cannot afford to hire a law firm to represent them, especially since they could end up with a legal bill that exceeds the amount of money at stake in their dispute. That’s just a reality.
As a result, many people end up doing their own legal work or become a self-represented litigant. If you are a litigator, you already know that this slows down the legal process and often wastes precious courtroom time and resources as people try to navigate the complexities of the justice system on their own.
And that is where we are today. When it comes to access to justice, we, as lawyers, are either part of the problem or part of the solution. And we have a choice which camp we fall into.
When British Columbia announced its innovation sandbox about two years ago, it was met with great concern in the legal community: after all, we simply cannot allow non-lawyers to provide legal services that will compete with what lawyers are already doing — at least that is what I heard lawyers saying. Since that time, Ontario introduced a similar regulatory sandbox to explore new and innovative types of legal services and legal service delivery; Alberta and Saskatchewan have followed suit. Other jurisdictions such as Manitoba are also exploring the idea of an innovation sandbox. This is not a new concept, as several U.S. states have been running similar “experiments” for years to explore new ways to provide legal information and services to people looking for affordable legal help.
For the last two years, I’ve been working with lawyers who view this as an opportunity to improve access to justice — one that allows them to explore new ways of delivering legal services. These lawyers are certified as legal coaches — who then offer limited legal services on a regular basis for a set fee to self-represented litigants and others managing their own legal matters. The lawyers tell me that they feel more satisfied having empowered their clients and in doing so without causing more financial hardship for those clients. They have a steady stream of income and more control over their work-life balance as well!
The trend is to adapt more tiers or levels of legal services, and these innovative lawyers have quickly jumped at that opportunity: some went on to establish solo legal coaching businesses, some incorporated legal coaching into their existing firm offerings; still others have launched new firms that only offer virtual legal coaching services to the public! Many also have their paralegals go through the certification process — so that their staff also have the tools and skills they need to offer a more client-centric service. It’s about giving clients what they want, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Many paralegals I’ve trained have also been welcomed into these innovation and regulatory sandbox programs, to offer legal coaching services on a limited basis to clients who desperately need information and support.
The world is changing and so is our profession. You can view this as either an opportunity or a threat. But you cannot ignore it. The change is happening, and you have a choice to make: will you embrace the undeniable opportunity to “do law differently” and provide services to this often-ignored segment of the population? Or will you complain that the changes infringe on the profession’s monopoly — one that clearly fails to serve a large portion of the Canadian population?
To find out which choice you will make, I invite lawyers to read up on the work taking place across the country to explore non-traditional approaches to legal services. Don’t let fear mongering sway your response to the changes taking place in our profession. You might learn something new and want to explore how you can be part of the change!
Jo-Anne Stark, B.Comm., J.D., CLC, is the founding president of the non-profit Legal Coaches Association and author of Mastering the Art of Legal Coaching. Find her on LinkedIn.
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