On January 11th, members of the Kamloops bar withdrew all duty to protest the closure of five regional legal aid offices.

Duty counsel are lawyers paid by the Legal Services Society to help lower income people with their family law problems.

The Kamloops bar made the decision to voice their opposition to massive reductions in services offered by the Legal Services Society of BC (LSS). In November, LSS announced their plans to shut down the LawLINE, the Community Advocate Support Line, and regional legal aid offices in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Surrey, and Victoria as of March 31st, 2010. These service cuts mean that the public’s ability to access legal aid for a wide variety of criminal, immigration, family, and other civil legal services will be reduced or eliminated. This round of cuts is the second to devastate legal aid in British Columbia within the last year.