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Can your landlord really evict you for hosting that party? Can the boss send you home without pay because you sprayed yourself with perfume? Can the insurance company really refuse to provide replacement costs for the camera stolen from your car?
Legal knowledge is most definitely power, and if you’re like most people, you feel pretty powerless when faced with even basic legal questions. So where can you go to get that empowering legal knowledge?
For more than 25 years, the UVic Legal Information Clinic (LIC) has provided free, confidential legal info to anyone—on-campus or off—who cares to drop by and talk. Run by volunteer law students, the clinic helps in such areas as landlord/tenant disputes, motor vehicles, contracts, family issues, employment, consumer issues, human rights and small claims.
And if a client needs help in other areas, including criminal law, property transactions, personal injury or litigation, the clinic can help them with appropriate referrals.
At any given time, there are about 40 law students who volunteer with the clinic. While they are not lawyers, they are trained in listening, interviewing and legal research, and the information they provide—in the form of a letter—is thoroughly vetted by a UVic law professor.
“For clients, it’s a place to be heard and to get the information they need,” explains second-year law student and LIC Director Cam Wardell. “And for the students, it’s a great opportunity to learn how to interact with clients and get practical experience dealing with real issues.”
“In first-year law, you cover a lot of legal theory,” says Dana Dempster, an LIC volunteer who was involved in researching several cases last year. “So it’s really good experience to see the real-life application of law and actually help people.”
The LIC, in Fraser 138, is open for drop-in visits only. The hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30–1:30 p.m. and Wednesdays 5–6 p.m. It will re-open on Jan. 29.
The Faculty of Law also provides students with opportunities for practical learning and community service through:
The Law Centre, which helps clients who cannot afford a lawyer.
The UVic Environmental Law Centre, Canada’s only public interest environmental law clinic.
The Business Law Clinic, which provides legal information to businesses for a nominal fee.
Pro-Bono Students Canada at UVic, which provides legal services to communities in need.
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