AG's incentive payment expected to increase local lawyers taking legal aid cases

LSS is pleased to announce a $500 incentive payment for each family and child protection contract accepted by a lawyer in a community where LSS is having difficulty placing cases with local lawyers.

When the Attorney General announced LSS’s budget for the current fiscal year, he directed LSS to set aside $1 million for an tariff incentive program.

In many communities outside Metro Vancouver and southern Vancouver Island, LSS has difficulty placing family and child protection cases with local lawyers.

LSS believes clients are best served by lawyers in the community because they are familiar with local circumstances (which is particularly important in child protection cases) and are more readily accessible to clients. Assigning lawyers from outside the community also increases LSS’s costs as travel fees are required.

LSS determined that the AG’s $1 million incentive fund would be best used to address these concerns.

In August, LSS surveyed lawyers in communities where placing family and child protection cases is a concern. The survey found that a $500 incentive payment would result in a majority of lawyers taking more contracts in their home communities..


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