Do I Need a Lawyer?

No. You don’t need a lawyer to go to court or to attend a tribunal hearing. You can represent yourself in civil, family and criminal cases. It is recommended to talk to a lawyer to understand your rights and for advice on how to proceed. This website and others in BC provide a range of information to help you understand your legal rights and be able to address your legal issues. Only lawyers can provide legal advice and there are ways that you may be able to get free or low-cost advice from a lawyer.

Access Legal Information

Getting legal information will help you understand your legal rights and options. It will help you find the law that applies to your situation and help you address your legal issue. 

Learning about the law is important because, in addition to knowing your legal rights, you also need to know the rules and procedures of court. Judges make decisions based on the facts of the case and the law that applies to those facts. So, you need to be able to build a case based on the facts as well as the law. 

To learn more, see the Legal Help Guides for Crime, Family and Lawsuits. If you have an issue with a government agency or professional organization, see AdminLawBC.ca. A great, go-to resource for all legal issues is Clicklaw.bc.ca.

Get Legal Advice

If you have a legal problem, it is a good idea to talk to a lawyer to get legal advice. Even if you are going to handle your own case, a lawyer can help you at every step in the legal process. A lawyer can give you important information about many things, including:

• the court system
• the law that applies to your case
• the correct court forms to use
• the documents and other evidence you need to prove your case
• and your chances of success if your case is heard by a judge or jury.

A lawyer can also tell you about other ways to resolve your dispute without going to court.

Legal Advice Options

Here are some options for how you can access legal services:

• Hire a lawyer
  You can hire a lawyer and pay for all the legal services that they provide. Lawyers often require a "retainer", an amount of money set by the individual lawyer to start working on your case. To find a lawyer, you can use the Canadian Bar Association BC Branch’s lawyer referral service: www.CBABC.org. For just $25, you can get up to 30 minutes of legal advice. If you hire a lawyer, be sure to ask about costs at the start. You can also ask if the lawyer’s fees can be negotiated.
• Unbundled legal services
  Most legal problems involve a series of legal steps to be taken before the issue is solved. You can ask a lawyer to handle only certain parts of the legal work and do the other parts yourself. This is called “unbundled legal services”, or a “limited scope retainer” because you are only paying for some legal help – not the whole bundle. To learn more, see Unbundled Legal Services.
• Legal Aid (free)
  You may be able to get free legal aid from the government, if you meet certain financial requirements and have a certain type of legal problem. The Legal Services Society will pay for a lawyer to represent you if:

• your legal problem is covered by its legal aid rules;
• you meet its financial guidelines; and
• you have no other way of getting legal help.

Legal problems that may be covered by legal aid include:

• criminal charges;
• mental health and prison issues;
• child protection matters; and
• immigration problems. 

The Legal Services Society provides legal aid to low-income earners in British Columbia. To learn more, go to www.LSS.bc.ca/legal_aid.

• Pro bono legal services (free)

“Pro bono” is a Latin word that is used to describe free professional services. Access Pro Bono operates a number of free legal clinics throughout the province. Search here to find a location near you to see if you qualify.

When you go to a pro bono legal clinic, you will have an opportunity to discuss your legal problem with a lawyer for 30 minutes. You can learn about your options for taking the next step in your case. You can return to the clinic for more advice another time, but it is not likely that you will meet with the same lawyer. When you meet with a lawyer at the clinic, you can find out your options for further pro bono legal services, including full legal representation.

Before going to get pro bono legal advice at a clinic, use the following worksheet to prepare for your meeting. Thirty minutes goes really fast. You don’t want to spend all of your time telling your story, only to find that there’s no time left to get legal advice. The worksheet will help you prepare and use your time will. (See Worksheet #1: Meeting with a Lawyer.)

• Legal Advocates (free)
  A legal advocate is someone who is trained to help people with a range of legal issues – but they are not lawyers. That means that they cannot provide legal advice. Advocates work primarily with economically challenged individuals. Advocates commonly provide services in these areas of law: Employment Assistance, Disability Assistance, Social Assistance, Rental Issues, Elder Care, etc. To find an advocate in your area, search the PovNET directory. 

As you can see, there are many opportunities to access free and low cost lawyers. Low incomes individuals may qualify for legal aid or be helped through Access Pro Bono or an advocate. Anyone in BC can use the Lawyer Referral Service – where for $25, you can meet with a lawyer to get legal advice. 

To get legal advice, you will need to meet with a lawyer. To learn more about why it’s a good idea to get legal advice, see the next section: How Lawyers Help.

Last reviewed: March 2016