Salvation Army Pro Bono Program Shut Down

I am very sorry to report that the Salvation Army's pro bono legal advice program has shut down. Although I understand that self-sufficient regional clinics may be maintained, the clinics run out of the program's central Vancouver office at Belkin House, such as the clinics at the Robson Square Provincial Court registry and the Caring Place in Maple Ridge, are terminated effective immediately. This is a really disappointing development; the program was run very efficiently and served thousands of people, and I've been volunteering with the program...

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Regulations to Family Law Act Published

The orders in council implementing the regulations required by the new Family Law Act were made on 23 November 2012 and published on 26 November 2012.The regulations will, as of 18 March 2013, the day the Family Law Act comes into force, repeal the regulations under the old Family Relations Act and replace them with the Family Law Act Regulation (PDF) and the Family Law Act Pension Regulation (PDF). A host of regulations to other statutes, from the Contaminated Sites Regulation to the International Business Activity Regulation,...

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New Provincial Court Report: Fewer judges now than in 2010

The Provincial Court of British Columbia has quietly published an updated document (PDF) detailing both new judicial appointments and judges lost to the court between 30 September 2010 and 31 October 2012.Boiling it all down, the numbers show that the court has a judicial complement of 123.80 full-time equivalent judges now, three judges less than the complement of 126.30 the court had this time in 2010, and twenty judges below the 143.65 judges the court had in 2005.In 2010, the court published a powerful a report detailing the effects of...

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Competition Heats Up for Family Law Arbitrator Training

The Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, the preeminent provider of legal education for lawyers in the province, has just announced a training opportunity for family law lawyers wanting to practice as arbitrators, mere days after information about a similar course being released by the BC Arbitiration and Mediation Institute; see my post below. CLE's offering is scheduled to run from Tuesday 5 February to Saturday 9 February 2013 at a standard rate of $1,950, about $1,000 cheaper than the BCAMI offering and two weeks earlier.So...

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MediateBC Releases Updated Guidelines for Distance Mediation

MediateBC has announced the release of the Distance Family Mediation Project’s second edition of Mediating from a Distance: Suggested Practice Guidelines for Family Mediators (PDF). According to the blog post announcing the release:"The guidelines are a detailed compilation of the knowledge acquired by our Distance Family Mediation Project on the topic of how to conduct family mediation 'from a distance', using technology. The project – which took place in three phases, beginning in 2007 – explored the feasibility of using information and communication...

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BCAMI Family Law Arbitrator Training Set for February 2013

The British Columbia Arbitration and Mediation Institute has been working to develop training (DOC) for family law arbitrators since the Family Law Act became law last November. They must be ready to go, because the first session is set for five days beginning on 18 February 2013. I understand that the cost will be just under $3,000.Unfortunately, I don't know much more about the BCAMI's new offering apart from this. BCAMI's ordinary arbitrator training is given in Vancouver by esteemed lawyer and arbitrator Glen Bell and requires three...

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