FIVE YEARS ago, almost 50 per cent of the calls to the
North Shore Information and Volunteer Centre were related

to law.

But while there was clearly a
need, there was no one to meet
that need and this gap in services
meant that hundreds of low-in-
come local residents were going
without the legal help they re-
quired.

That was in 1981. In April of
1982, the centre introduced its
legal information counsellor to
help the people who would other-
wise be left to battle the legal
jungle alone. The response was
enormous and the number of
clients climbed yearly.

Last year, legal counsellor Peari
McKenzie handled almost !,800
cases.

McKenzie explains that most of
her callers have legal problems a
lawyer would not accept because
the clients cannot afford the fee.

POVERTY LAW.

Describing the field as ‘‘poverty
law,” she says that most of the
users of the free service’ barely
have enough money to make ends
meet — let alone pay for a lawyer.

As an example, McKenzie tells
of a divorced mother of two who
cannot get the service station to
make good on a poor repair job.

-“This car is vitally important to

By STEPHEN BARRINGTON
News Reporter

her,’’ McKenzie says. ‘‘The cost of
having it (improperly) fixed was
$500 when she might make only
$700 a month. If she doesn’t have
a car, she can’t drive her kids to
school or to the doctor.’’

So the woman turns to McKen-
zie, who outlines possible legal
routes that might help to resolve
the situation.

But the woman might have more

.than a legal quandary for McKen-

zie to deal with. ‘‘They might
present a problem that’s just the
tip of the iceberg,’’ she explains.
‘“We're dealing with more and
more people in stressful situations
who can’t remember (the legal in-
formation) or follow it through.

EMOTIONAL NEED

“We were finding a lot of my
job was taken up with people who
have more emotional than legal
problems,’? McKenzie remembers.
Indeed, the centre’s 1985 statistics
show that a large portion of the
cases involved spousal abuse — a
heavy emotional load for the party
involved.

That is where Barbara Herringer

NORT,

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comes in. A University of B.C.
social work student doing her
practicum at the centre, Herringer
attempts to deal with the draining
emotional aspects that often ac-
company the clients’ legal pro-
bleins.

She describes her job as: ‘‘more
or less trying to take some of the
nressure off so they can deal with
the (legal) problem at hand,’’ and
says it can be as simple as just sit-
ting and listening.

‘People feel overwhelmed if
there is any sort of legal crisis,’’
Herringer explains. ‘‘It’s really
difficult for people to reach out
and explain the issues.’’

PERMANENT WORK

Another part of Herringer’s two
days a week at the centre is to
determine if there is need for a
permanent social worker to work
with the legal information
counsellor. So far, the answer
seems to be yes.

“It looks like the majority of
cases that come through here need
some sort of social work interven-
tion,”’ says Herringer.

The centre’s statistics show that
most calls are usually related to
farnily law and that 2 large portion
of these involve domestic violence,
making them prime candidates for
a social worker’s visit.

A social worker would help
them ‘‘to make sense of what is
what,” says Herringer.

RIMES

79.75 _LT235/75R15 (6 ply
9450 __75ORI16

35 - Sunday, October 26, 1986 - North Shore News
1 SAEED AA APO CI NOME RAT SOU LA TLO MIT ITVR GLI ARTE Pea OR AATERS A

What’s going
on in the

community
PAGE 43 |

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LEGAL INFORMATION counseHor Pearl McKenzie (standing) and
social worker Barbara Herringer speak to a client at the North Shore In-
formation and Volunteer Centre.

867 Park Royal North
Tel: 925-1745

(Near Woodward's Food Floor)