CBABC’S Member Services Activities

Frank Kraemer (VOL. 18, NO. 6)
I was reading the recent BarTalk and saw Frank Kraemer’s article about the member services. I like the benefits of the member discounts and in particular, I have used it for Canucks tickets and Playland and plan to use it for ski tickets as well. I think it would be unfortunate to lose these benefits.

– Brett A. Horton, Director, Assyst Real Estate, Western Canada

Zanzibar Conference on Legal Aid and Access to Justice

Allan Parker (VOL. 18, NO. 4)
Allan Parker’s article on the Access to Justice Conference in Zanzibar (August 2006, p.21) caused me to reflect. I recently referred a woman from the Sechelt Peninsula to a downtown Vancouver family lawyer I knew. He told her, apparently, that he wanted a $10,000 retainer. Another man came in a few days later and told me that a Surrey lawyer would not touch his disability claim without receiving a $5,000 retainer. Another disabled Greek-Canadian client came in a few weeks ago and told me that his lawyer had taken, and enforced, a 40 per cent contingency to do a WCB claim. Perhaps we should be talking about Access to Justice in Vancouver, as well as in Zanzibar. Neither the B.C. nor the Federal government are doing anything significant to expand access to justice. Pro-bono is not the best or only answer either.

– John Craig Paterson

These letters were published in the February 2007 issue of BarTalk.