What you need to know
- Oct. 27 is Duty Counsel Day across Canada
- Duty counsel are lawyers who provide free, on-the-spot legal information, advice and representation to people who don’t have a lawyer on the day of their scheduled court appearance
- In 2025, duty counsel lawyers assisted over 125,000 clients across Alberta
- Duty counsel plays a critical role in keeping the justice system operating smoothly by providing immediate legal assistance when it is needed most
Duty Counsel Day is Oct. 27, a day to recognize the lawyers who provide free legal assistance to Albertans navigating the court system. Many people don’t realize duty counsel services are available until they find themselves in court.
Legal Aid Alberta criminal duty counsel lawyer Dominique Giesbrecht to explains how duty counsel helps people understand their rights and navigate what can be an overwhelming process.
Can you explain the role of duty counsel? And take us through an example when someone might need duty counsel?
Duty counsel are lawyers who give free legal information, advice and representation to people who don’t have a lawyer on the day of their scheduled court appearance.
Duty counsel lawyers are available to help in youth and adult criminal matter, for some areas of family law, including for emergency protection orders or child welfare matters and in some areas of immigration law.
For the most part, people may first encounter duty counsel after they have been arrested and taken into custody, or on the day of their first scheduled court appearance.
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This plays a very important role in keeping the wheels of justice moving. What would happen if we didn’t have duty counsel?
Court can be very overwhelming and difficult to understand, especially when it’s someone’s first time and when they don’t have a lawyer. A duty counsel provides immediate access to information about what to expect of the overall process and to provide legal information, so people understand their rights and how to exercise them.
Just last year alone, Legal Aid Alberta duty counsel lawyers assisted over 125,000 people across Alberta, which shows just how many people rely on this service to really understand what is happening with their court matter and what options are available to them.
Can you take us through the process, understanding that most people don’t know duty counsel exists until they need it. Once they get into the system, how does it work from point A to point B to being in front of a judge?
I’ll speak from the criminal law side because that’s where I practise. As a duty counsel lawyer, when someone comes to court for their first appearance, they’ll meet with us and we explain to them the overall process of what to expect, what their basic rights are once they’ve been charged with a crime and how to exercise them.
We speak with the Crown prosecutor and the court on their behalf to advocate for them, we can help them get a lawyer through legal aid if they qualify and we can connect them with community supports and resources that they might benefit from.
October 27 is Duty Counsel Day, a day to celebrate the work that you do. Why have this day and what do you want to do in terms of educating the public?
It’s important to recognize duty counsel are the lawyers who provide frontline legal assistance to Albertans every single day. They provide this assistance when and where people need it the most, whether someone is in court facing criminal charges, because their child has been apprehended or because they are applying for an emergency protection order.
Duty counsel lawyers are available to help people through some of the most stressful moments in their lives and to make sure they understand their legal rights, how to exercise them, to know they are not alone in the system.
Duty Counsel Day helps to recognize the important work that the lawyers do and to that help may be available if they ever find themselves navigating the legal system.
Learn more about Duty Counsel Day and how we’re celebrating our everyday legal heroes