Legal aid fails women fleeing abuse in B.C.
Justice ‘innovations’ fail to help, says Rosa Elena Arteaga.
Over the last 15 years, we’ve watched a dizzying array of “family law innovations” try to replace publicly-funded representation by lawyers. Since the gutting of B.C.’s legal aid system in 2001, we’ve seen the emergence of bits and pieces of advice and self-help services — all in an effort to do more with less.
We are not doing more with less, and we are not addressing the needs of women leaving violence because women need an appropriate and adequate response. Responses that ask them to do more with less have always been and continue to be insufficient. It has never been safe for women to leave their partners, and they have never had the full protection of the law when leaving abuse. This must change.
The problem with B.C.’s recent justice innovations is that they fail to account for the reality of who is accessing the family law system. Those at the helm of the justice system treat the vast majority of family law situations as two people who mutually agree that things are not working and are consciously uncoupling — they just need a little help. But the numbers don’t match that assumption: 50 per cent of relationships end; one in three women experience intimate partner violence and 15 per cent of family law cases are high conflict.
Further, an individual woman often experiences an overlap of these situations. Our current approach seems to ignore violence against women in the legal system, perhaps because addressing violence against women gets in the way of innovating. The situation is so dire that two brave women leaving abusive relationships and the Single Mothers Alliance are suing the B.C. government for fair access to legal aid.
According to lawyer Michael Mulligan, who did a freedom of information request of government revenues and expenditures, the Legal Services Tax (a tax whose existence was specifically designed to fund legal aid in B.C.) provided the government with $193 million in 2016. Of that, $58 million was spent on legal aid in addition to a federal supplement of $14 million. Furthermore, the 2015 budget for the Legal Services Society is $79 million, of which $14 million is spent on family law (compared to $42 million for criminal law). The money is there if we choose to prioritize women experiencing violence; other provinces spend more per capita than B.C. does because they are prioritizing women’s safety.
Those who assault their spouses have lawyers funded by legal aid because they are considered a criminal matter and are prioritized in court over family law matters. The shortage of judges means that family law cases are delayed and bumped, so women’s concerns are not heard. Additionally, 57 per cent of the family law files that are being heard are done with at least one self-represented litigant. All of this prevents women from getting the timely orders they need to live free from violence.
The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada said, “Our courtrooms today are filled with litigants who are not represented by counsel, trying to navigate the sometimes complex demands of law and procedure. Others simply give up.” We at Jane Doe see that women fleeing abuse are often the ones who give up. Why? They see a system that will not protect them or their children, and a system that does not prioritize their safety or basic needs. Who among us would do differently?
We propose an innovation of our own — let’s help women live violence-free by providing appropriate legal services that assist a woman in a timely way to meet all her needs so that she can leave and never feels compelled to return to protect her or her children. Let’s just do more with more; properly funding Family Law Legal Aid is an innovation that will save lives.
The money is there if we choose to prioritize women experiencing violence; other provinces spend more per capita than B.C. does because they are prioritizing women’s safety.