BC Provincial Court and “Clicklaw” collaborate on one-page guides
The BC Provincial Court and the website Clicklaw are collaborating to provide one-page, up-to-date summaries of the most useful online resources in each of the Provincial Court’s major areas of work – family, criminal and small claims.
It started when one Provincial Court Judge noted that there were a lot of online resources that would be useful for people representing themselves in court (known as self-represented litigants or “SRLs”), but that there was no simple way for these litigants to find out which would be the best and most appropriate for them. While a judge might know about these online resources, it didn’t really help a litigant to recite URLs and Websites in court.
The judge approached Clicklaw, a website that provides a centralized portal offering legal information and services from trusted organizations. Maintained by Courthouse Libraries BC, Clicklaw is used by the public and by those who help the public find legal information, e.g. law student clinicians, librarians, and community workers.
The judge and the Clicklaw staff came up with the idea that Clicklaw would provide one-page handouts which would guide SRLs to resources likely to be helpful to them. Clicklaw would help curate and feature resources it believed would be good starting points, regardless of the publisher.
Each single page handout is a printable PDF. It has a summary of the resources and feature a single URL, so that Clicklaw can regularly update the web pages if links to resources change, if new and helpful resources come online, or if old ones become out-of-date.
The handouts are downloadable as PDF web pages, so everyone can print and distribute them as needed. See them in action here:
- Where do I start for information on Family Court?
- Where do I start for information on Small Claims Court?
- Where do I start for information on Criminal Court?
If you’d like to know more about this collaboration, please contact Desy Wahyuni, the Clicklaw program co-ordinator at [email protected].
