Family law cases in Kamloops Provincial Courts are among the top ten in highest wait times in the province.

Chair of the Criminal Justice section of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association Graham Kay says those delays are concerning.

“I think family law is certainly the biggest area that we need to be concerned about. We are a couple of months over the provincial average for delays in family trials and family trials are dealing with issues pertaining to children for the most part.”

Kay says a lack of legal aid funding is leading to fewer lawyers taking those cases on and an increase in people representing themselves, which further bogs the system down.

“A lot of family files in provincial court tend to be matters that also deal with legal aid or self represented people. Family law has been the hardest hit with the lack of funding for legal aid. There has been a lack of response by government to put money into raising the rate that lawyers get paid, that hasn’t changed in 26 years. So fewer lawyers are taking on the legal aid cases.”

He is calling for more legal aid funding from the province and an increase in the number of judges.

 

Editors Note: Angelo Iacobucci passed away December 14th. While we work through our tremendous loss he continues to be a big part of Radio NL as he always will be. We have found a folder of almost 30 stories he had prepared for the holiday season. This is one of them.