Allan Fineblit is the CEO of the Law Society of Manitoba.  [Photo by Ruth Bonneville for The Lawyers Weekly] Click here to see full sized version.

The Law Society of Manitoba is preparing to launch a pilot project to improve the accessibility of legal services to the most underserved segment of society — the middle class.

Building off the popularity of legal aid in the province, the LSM has approved the creation of The Family Law Access Centre (FLAC) and expects it to be up and running early in the new year.

The LSM will act as a brokerage house in family law matters by buying legal services at a discount from private bar lawyers and then making them available to those in the middle of the socio-economic spectrum, provided they meet certain financial criteria. The LSM will also handle client billing and will guarantee payment to participating lawyers, eliminating a major administrative headache.

Allan Fineblit, CEO of the LSM, said poor people have always been able to hire a lawyer through legal aid and rich ones can do the same by simply getting out their chequebooks. But it’s the middle class that is often unable to spend the many thousands of dollars required to bring a family law matter to conclusion.

“The (middle-class) clients are left with this awful situation. Even people who make a decent living can have trouble affording the legal services they need. They have to deal with the matter, and it can be hugely expensive. At stake can be the most important thing in the world to them, the custody of their children,” he says, adding he believes this program is the first of its kind in Canada.

Before would-be clients can avail themselves of the lawyers participating in FLAC, they will be subject to a full financial assessment, including an examination of their income, debts, assets, tax returns, family size and number of dependents. If they land in the appointed range, they’ll be accepted into the program. If they fall below, they’ll be referred to legal aid and if they make too much money, they’ll be asked to hire a lawyer on their own.

Bruce King, managing partner of Pitblado LLP in Winnipeg, says FLAC is one way to address the accessibility problem for legal services that has evolved over time and threatens to become an even larger issue in the future.

“The average person is priced out of the market. It’s not the lawyers’ fault. We don’t charge more than a doctor or a veterinarian. There is a need for our services and a market for our services,” he says.

Fineblit says the majority of lawyers want to help those in need but they simply can’t do it for free. (Under FLAC, he says the LMS will be asking lawyers to give their time for approximately two-thirds their usual hourly rate.) Clients will often offer to make installments over time, but lawyers rarely see the amount of money that they should, he says.

“There’s no magic solution,” he says. “But the brokerage model guarantees their fees. They don’t have to worry about collection or deal with the clients around the issue of money.

“The broker’s share is a portion of the total costs but a relatively small one. It facilitates a relationship between people who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to afford a lawyer. One of our mandates is to ensure people have access to the legal services they need. It’s one of our lines of business.”

Fineblit says the LSM has factored a certain percentage of bad debts into its projections.

“It’s risky, you don’t know how high the bad debt numbers will be but everybody has tremendous potential to be part of the solution to the affordability problem,” he says.

“We’ll put aside $250,000 for this pilot project. When we run out of money, that’s when we’ll stop (taking on new cases).”

Sometimes, middle-class clients are able to borrow money from friends and family or find a sympathetic lawyer willing to take on their case but all too often, they’re choosing to represent themselves. But by selecting this course of action, they’re doing themselves a disservice, bogging down the court system and making things difficult for judges.

Fineblit says the people who often go down this road are the most vulnerable in society, including people for whom English isn’t their first language, new Canadians with no sense of the legal system or people who are inarticulate or don’t have much education.

Jillian Cooper, a partner and family law lawyer at Deeley Fabbri Sellen in Winnipeg, says she believes FLAC will prove its worth in helping the middle class in divorce, child custody, property, child support and spousal support matters. She says the law is one of the few areas where people feel they can handle complex matters on their own.

“I believe everybody is entitled to representation,” she says. “You could self-medicate, but a much better course is to receive medication from somebody who knows how the drug will act in your body and what side effects it might have. People should be able to access justice appropriately rather than trying to figure it out themselves and possibly making mistakes.”

Vern Krishna, a University of Ottawa law professor and former Law Society of Upper Canada treasurer, calls FLAC a “noble cause,” but wonders what impact it will have on non-participating lawyers.

“Their fees are being undercut (by FLAC). It will put financial pressure on lawyers who aren’t in the program to lower their rates,” he says.

Krishna says he doesn’t believe other jurisdictions will rush forward to copy the FLAC model, either.

“Given the state of the economy and the pressure that lawyers are facing already, especially in certain types of practices, such as family and criminal, I think there will be some reluctance (to participate in such a model),” he says.

Fineblit says he’d love to see every lawyer in the province sign up for FLAC but if 100 come forward he’ll be “thrilled.”

“The greater the choice (of lawyers), the more I’ll like it. Some people might prefer a woman lawyer, a lawyer who comes from their neighbourhood or one who works for a big firm or for a small firm,” he says.