This morning, the Province, Legal Aid BC (LABC), Centre for Family Equity (CFE), and West Coast LEAF announced a historic settlement of litigation that has been ongoing for almost seven years.
The case was a constitutional challenge against the Province of BC and LABC for failing to provide adequate family law legal aid to women leaving abusive relationships.
As a result of this historic settlement, British Columbia will have a new multidisciplinary, trauma-informed family law clinic offering in-person and virtual services to eligible clients.
Government is providing additional funding for LABC to expand financial eligibility and improve intake capacity to ensure more people have timely access to family legal aid services, including through the new clinic. The Province will invest $29.1M over the next three years to support LABC in implementing these changes.
This is the biggest increase in funding to family law legal aid since cuts by the provincial government two decades ago.
We were privileged to represent the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers in this litigation. To read more about their important work, click here.
To read more about the important work of West Coast LEAF, click here.