This information is for lawyers who wish to explore pro bono opportunities.
Medical-Legal: pro bono estate planning help for NSHA patients
The Estate Planning Legal Health (EPLH) program is a Medical-Legal Partnership between the Nova Scotia Health Authority and the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia to offer free estate planning legal help to qualifying patients. The EPLH program offers free:
- legal information, resources, and referrals on estate planning issues
- summary advice from a lawyer who does estate planning work
- preparation of a Will or Power of Attorney document.
Legal advice and services are provided by volunteer lawyers.
The Estate Planning Legal Health Program is available to patients:
- with a life-limiting illness who are receiving care through the QEII
- who need legal information, resources or legal advice, document preparation about:
- Powers of Attorney
- Making a Will
- with a combined family gross income of less than $65,000 per year for the current or immediate preceding tax year, and do not own real property.
Click here for more information and to join the EPLH program Volunteer Lawyer List.
Medical-Legal: pro bono for IWK patients & their families
This project is a Medical-Legal Partnership amongst the IWK, LISNS and McInnes Cooper to deliver free legal services to qualifying patients and their families. There are similar Medical-Legal Partnerships in Ontario, facilitated by Pro Bono Ontario. The Project launched in April 2015, and won the 2018 IWK Board Community Excellence Award.
LISNS performs a triage role, assessing needs, providing legal information, and making referrals to pro bono lawyers at McInnes Cooper or other resources where appropriate, when the families cannot access legal aid or McInnes Cooper.
Through our project work the partners have identified the need to have a roster of lawyers to manage conflicts and gaps which will and have been arising. LISNS specifically thanks Jamie Simpson, David Bond, Bacchus & Associates, and BOYNECLARKE (Joshua Santimaw) for their kind support in helping families who could not access the help elsewhere.
LISNS seeks volunteer lawyers to be part of a roster to provide summary advice, unbundled services and/or full representation to qualifying patients and their families in the following areas of law:
- Adult Capacity and Decision-making
- Education
- Employment
- Immigration
- Access to healthcare, including insurance coverage (private or public)
- Housing
- Access to government programs
- Tax
- Wills & Estates
- Human Rights
- Family law (where Nova Scotia Legal Aid cannot assist)
Please contact the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia at 902-454-2198 or [email protected] for further information.
Lawyer Referral Service (all areas of law)
Members of the Legal Information Society's Lawyer Referral Service who select the "pro bono" option commit to offering free legal information and summary advice to individuals referred to them for up to 30 minutes, and may choose to provide further help, at their discretion. Click here to learn more.
LISNS pro bono Objectives and Principles
LISNS pro bono Objectives
- To help Nova Scotians find pro bono services for their legal problem
- To create various ways for Nova Scotians to gain access to legal pro bono services
- To partner with organizations already providing pro bono legal services throughout Nova Scotia
- To educate the Nova Scotia legal community about pro bono opportunities and their benefits
- To engage and provide opportunities for the legal community in Nova Scotia to participate in delivering pro bono services
- To raise general public awareness about pro bono legal services
LISNS pro bono Principles
1. Providing pro bono legal services is part of the tradition of the Nova Scotia Bar, where the profession has demonstrated its ethical and moral responsibility to assist citizens in attaining access to justice
2. Pro bono legal services are provided to people and non-profit organizations of limited means without expectation of a fee.
3. Pro bono legal services should be designed and provided according to the changing social and legal needs of the people and non-profit organizations of limited means for whom they are intended
4. Pro bono legal services should be provided according to the same standards of dedication, excellence, and professional ethics as paid services.
5. Pro bono legal services should serve to complement and not replace government-funded programs advancing access to justice; such as Nova Scotia Legal Aid. A collaborative pro bono system should not be a substitute for a properly funded legal aid system.
Contact for more information
For more information about any of these pro bono volunteer opportunities, please contact [email protected]