The Legal Professions Act, which became law in 2024, created a new category of legal service provider — regulated paralegals — who differ from those currently known in the province as paralegals, who work under the supervision of a lawyer and are not allowed to provide legal advice.
A regulated paralegal will be allowed to provide some legal services directly to the public and will be regulated by the Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC). The province established this new category of paralegal to allow people who can’t afford a lawyer to be able to obtain legal assistance.
A working group set up by the provincial attorney general is now seeking feedback on a number of draft suggestions on what the regulated paralegals should be allowed to do. The working group is proposing two types of licences for regulated paralegals — a general scope licence to help people with matters such as traffic tickets, wills and powers of attorney, and a family law specialization licence that would allow the paralegals to work on matters like adoptions, property division and custody orders.
The working group is interested in getting feedback on whether people think the scopes of licensing will help more people get legal assistance, what legal services are missing from the proposals, whether there are services included that shouldn’t be, and if there are other issues regulated paralegals could help with.
An online survey has been set up to allow the public to provide input on those questions and more. It runs until Feb. 27.
The Legal Professions Act is currently being challenged in the courts by both the law society and the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia. More information about the state of the litigation can be found here.
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