Pro Bono Law of B.C. (PBLBC) is launching its new ProBonoNet.bc.ca website in January 2006. Responding to the demand for its Online Poverty Law Training Course and its directory of services and resources, PBLBC is streamlining navigation to the secured sections of the website to make it easier for lawyers to access the training and new pro bono opportunities.

Time spent by lawyers learning from and reviewing the content of PBLBCs Online Poverty Law Training Course can be included in the self-study section of the Law Society’s Annual Practice Declaration. The training course includes an overview of welfare law, income assistance and disability assistance, effective skills for interviewing poverty law clients, reconsideration applications, tribunal proceedings and judicial review applications.

The new website will also manage PBLBCs Roster Programs which were launched in November 2005. The Federal Court of Appeal Program, Judicial Review Program and Family Law Program provide lawyers with opportunities to assist pre-screened clients with well-defined and meritorious legal issues. Each volunteer lawyer determines the scope and terms of the assistance that s/he can provide, while PBLBC provides the necessary support and resources so that volunteer lawyers are able to focus on the discrete goal of the representation agreement. For more information, contact Executive Director Jamie Maclaren at info@probononet.bc.ca or 604-893-8392.

This article was published in the December 2005 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.