Going to court can be a stressful experience for anyone. Fortunately, Canadians have a Charter right to legal representation and legal aid organizations across the country provide duty counsel lawyers free of charge to Canadians who need on-the-spot legal advice.
In Alberta alone, Legal Aid Alberta duty counsel provided assistance 135,000 times in courtrooms all across the province last year. Nationally, that figure rises to over 1 million assists each year.
Legal Aid Alberta staff lawyers Nicole Sissons and Stephanie Ma appeared on the Edmonton Global Morning News program to talk about the vital role of duty counsel, and about national Duty Counsel Day, October 27.
View the segment (transcript below):
Transcript:
Vinesh Pratap: Going to court can be a stressful experience for anyone. Fortunately, legal aid provides duty counsel lawyers free of charge to Canadians who need on-the-spot legal advice. Here to tell us about national Duty Counsel Day and the role of these lawyers play are Legal Aid Alberta staff lawyers Stephanie Ma and Nicole Sissons. Thank you both for being here today.
Nicole Sissons: Thanks for having us.
Pratap: OK so Nicole, let’s start with you first. What is Duty Counsel Day all about and what is duty counsel?
Sissons: So duty counsel are lawyers who are in all sort of levels of court, and what they do is they assist people who are coming to court, really for the first time, who don’t have their own lawyers and who really don’t know what to do. It’s a stressful thing as you can imagine. We’re there to give advice, we’re there to make sure that they know what to do as they make their way through the justice system and will help them resolve their matters as best we can.
Pratap: And so is Duty Counsel Day ‘lifting the veil’ so to speak?
Sissons: It is. I can tell you that there has been in Alberta alone 135,000 duty Counsel assists this year, and nationally over a million, And so it is October 27 is the day that we’re going to designate national Duty Counsel Day and it’s just so that everybody in the country knows that they have the right to legal representation and that there is help there for them and there is somebody to guide them through the system.
Pratap: A complex, complicated system. So obviously you both practice different areas of law. Stephanie, let’s start with you. What area do you practice, in the role you play within the legal aid system?
Stephanie Ma: Sure. So, as a family lawyer with Legal Aid Alberta, family duty counsel in Calgary and Edmonton are available during court hours to assist with Emergency Protection Order applications for individuals facing domestic violence – this is an important first step in protecting your family, and we’re there to help. Family duty counsel also appears in docket courts across the province to assist with family law cases, child welfare cases. So in instances of child welfare matters, it’s where children are apprehended, taken from the home due to concerns about their safety and well-being, and duty counsel will often meet with the parents or guardians who are understandably upset and looking for some information about next steps. In terms of the family law aspect, our duty counsel will typically assist with parenting and support matters in the court.
Pratap: OK, so running the full gamut there. So Nicole I’m assuming you’re criminal (law)?
Sissons: I am criminal law and I can’t overstate the importance of having advice when you’re going to criminal court. As you can understand, what happens in criminal court is going to have some life-changing outcome for you – it certainly can. In any event it can make it so that you can’t get certain jobs, it can affect your travel and most importantly, it can affect your liberty. Definitely it’s important that you speak to a lawyer before you go into criminal court. We also have a team that takes calls from people who are arrested, fresh arrests, and they’re giving advice as to how they’re to deal with the, at least when they’ve been arrested and makes sure their rights are protected and we have another team that will help speak to bail or judicial interim release, which is getting released from jail if you are accused of a crime and have been charged so that you’re not kept in custody waiting for your matter to go to trial, which can take a very long time.
Pratap: OK so that leaves my last question and we have about a minute left, you know you’re dealing with emotions – you’re dealing with the complexities of the legal system. Talk about the importance of the he role you play in terms of being a guide to clients.
Ma: So, in terms of family law it can be a challenge to represent yourself. A person might agree to something they didn’t intend to agree to, or not know what the consequences might be, so it’s really important to have someone in your corner looking out for your best interest.
Pratap: And on the criminal side?
Sissons: The criminal side – you know I can’t – as I said I can’t state it enough: it can end up being the difference between you being in jail and you being free. It doesn’t get any more important than that. And of course the state has the resources, so it’s important that you have proper legal representation when you’re in court.
Pratap: And it’s important to talk about the role that you both play and the legal aid community plays in our community overall. Nicole, Stephanie, thank you for your time this morning, it’s greatly appreciated. For more information on national Duty Counsel Day it’s taking place on October 27. For more on that visit knowdutycounsel.ca and meanwhile, legal aid Alberta lawyers specialize in family law child bluffer domestic violence immigration and youth and adult criminal defense if you do have a question for a lawyer you can send it to [email protected].