Common Effort, Common Solutions

by Kerry-Lynne D Findlay

Where have all the clients gone?
No more billing
Where have all the clients gone?
No referrals in sight
Where have all the clients gone?
Gone to Alberta, one by one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where has Legal Aid funding gone?
More delayed payments
Where has Legal Aid funding gone?
Remit your PST
Where has Legal Aid funding gone?
General Revenue every dime
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

With apologies to all folk musicians

I thought it was time to have our own “Lawyers’ Lament”. It is increasingly difficult to make a living, and to be paid even when we do the work.

The title of the January 19, 1998, edition of British Columbia Report is “Pity The Poor Lawyer” (The beleaguered legal profession demands a little respect). It’s not a bad article. BUT, it compares our average income to computer operators and secretaries, instead of to accountants, dentists, doctors, and the like (none of whom are legislated to collect PST). AND, it refers to case involving dissipation of estate assets by a lawyer and others, but does not criticize the accountant’s bill of $453,578.60 rendered against the last $500,000.

The CBA, through its initiative on Emerging Professional Issues, is offering concrete ideas, solutions, and lobbying to our members. We are told that markets, money and modernized relationships will drive the future of the legal profession. We’re looking at alternative and creative billing methods, new models for delivery of client service, protecting our practice jurisdictions, and how to deal effectively with globalization and technological pressures.

Okay, that’s about our livelihood. What about us as individuals, as citizens? There is a great deal of justified and unjustified misinformation about the legal system. Naturally, the public criticizes the main players in that system: judges and lawyers. Lawyers too, join in these criticisms. Quoting James Baldwin, “The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” Fair enough. We should be part of the solutions. If you want to help make a difference, the CBA is a good channel for your energies. Sign up on our volunteer registry, join in on committee work, attend section meetings, and dialogue with your colleagues to effect results.

There is a measurable decline today in deference to authority; a tangible move toward acting in isolation. We protect our own by removing ourselves from “the group effort.” People do not like to “join” even charitable causes, in the numbers they once did. Society doesn’t have the same expectations of us to contribute. Pollsters, however, tell us we need to come together more than ever--that the challenges we face are best served by a joint effort. Why? Because the changes and challenges are too big/too all-encompassing for the “little guy” to tackle alone. Remember the joint effort that sent “no fault” proponents underground last year.

We all feel robbed of time, but think of a small or big kindness that someone has shown you along the way and the difference it made in your day, your life. Now think about linking that generosity of spirit, person by person, and focusing it toward a common purpose. The power of it--in action--that is where we will find the time and the commitment needed. We should express our concerns, and then work side by side for a system and for laws that maintain our independent judiciary and improve what is wrong.

The results that can be created with applied common effort are boundless.

This article was published in the February 1998 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2006, all rights reserved.