Mostly Useless

Law jobs: your chance to realize that even though you were just in school for 8 months, you don't know how to actually DO anything.

This summer I'm working for a women's centre doing legal advocacy in Penticton. I just finished my first week, and it was overwhelming. All of my co-workers are friendly and helpful, and I've already tapped into the legal community here, but from day one I realized how steep the learning curve is.

Even though we learned a ton in first year, and I understand some basic legal principles, I don't know how to put any of that knowledge into action. I had a client come in whose uncle wanted to vary his grandfather's will. After explaining the Wills Variation Act, I was at a complete loss as to the next steps. What do you actually do when someone comes into your office with a Notice of Claim? Luckily we have an awesome consulting lawyer come into the office on Fridays and answer our legal questions, so we got it sorted out, but I was completely useless.

The law is complicated. That's why lawyers get paid so much money. But sometimes it seems unnecessarily so. Although there are tons of resources online for people who need legal information (the Legal Services Society and Clicklaw have already been helpful), they don't cover everything. And a lot of our clients are older and don't know how to use a computer or the internet. Legal Aid barely covers the necessities (i.e. things you could go to jail for). For a lot of people, community groups like the Penticton Women's Centre are the only places they can turn to for help. We do our best, but we only have trained lawyers in a few times a week. The rest of the work is done by legal advocates, like my supervisor, David, who has worked in legal advocacy positions for years.

David provides great information for people, but it seems like there is a gap in services. Why doesn't the government provide clearer information to people about what to do when they're faced with a legal problem? The provincial courts website has statutes and court rules, but these are written in dense language that even a law student can have a difficult time deciphering. What about someone who hasn't finished high school?

As lawyers, our job will be to make the law clear to people. It's unfortunate that it takes three years of intensive training to be able to do this, when the law affects peoples' lives every day.