How do we do Access to Justice (or, First they came for Legal Aid...)
A disturbing headline crossed my screen a month ago: " Potential changes to Legal Aid Alberta funding... " And honestly, like many others in my profession, I almost scrolled right past it. After all, didn't they just do that dance last September with the new funding agreement ? Then I got an e-mail from Calgary Legal Guidance. It linked to DefendAccesstoJustice . It looks like we have a problem that's going to impact more than just Legal Aid. Before I go on, I reviewed over 40 annual reports, news articles, and analyses of Legal Aid funding in Alberta. For my podcast-loving readers, I used Google's NotebookLM to generate an AI audio summary of this research. It's not perfect, but it's a fascinating example of new technology. Give it a listen ! What's going on? Legal Aid provides subsidized legal representation to low-income Albertans (mostly in criminal and family law cases). It is funded by the government (75% of i...