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Online search fee hits legal aid lawyers T he $6 fee imposed in January to online searches of British Columbia provincial court criminal and traffic records is proving a further hardship to legal aid lawyers, Vancouver lawyer Robert Bellows maintains. Bellows says probation officers, police, Crowns, and others court-affiliated workers do not have to pay the fee. Yet LexisNexis® Time Matters Bellows says legal aid defenders are also "one of the pillars" of the court in that their fees are largely derived from the B.C. government's contributions to legal service organizations. During a Law Week speech in April, Bellows said legal aid lawyers were already labouring under a legal aid system that was "in crisis and reaching a breaking point" to the extent that lawyers were refusing to take on this kind of work. "There are few of us left," he said. While the $6 fee may not sound like much, Bellows tells Canadian Lawyer he may get a call from a legal aid client in the evening or weekend that may involve as many as three different court search- es. He says many of the individuals that fall into the category of needing a legal aid defender are often struggling with substance abuse or mental-illness prob- lems. This makes gaining information from the individuals difficult and access to court records becomes vital. "That's $18 out of my pocket," he says. As well, those seemingly small charges add up at the end of a month. They are especially onerous when legal aid fees have not significantly increased since 1994. Attorney General Michael de Jong, a member of the panel, says he has struck a committee to look at the fees and how the site operates, including allowing media access. "I cannot remove the fee ntitled-4 1 ® entirely," says de Jong, who notes his government is facing increased costs with ballooning health-care and educa- tion budgets that was forcing it to look at cost-cutting and revenue-generating mechanisms such as fees. Bellows says he believes what might come about from the committee is "pro- posing a flat fee for a year for unlimited access to the system." — JS Practice Management Case management software that is FLEXIBLE Time Matters® practice management software offers powerful customization and automation features that effectively manage the elements of your workday — calendars, email, cases, clients, contacts, deadlines, communications, research, documents and more. Thousands of legal and business professionals trust award-winning Time Matters software to help them manage day-to-day information and activities. Discover how Time Matters can help your fi rm reach greater levels of productivity and profi tability. For more information, call 1-800-328-2898 or visit www.lexisnexis.ca/timematters. Download and Try Time Matters for FREE* * Download Time Matters free for 30 days. Certain conditions apply. LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under licence. Time Matters is a registered trademark of LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. © 2010 LexisNexis Canada Inc. All rights reserved. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JUNE 2010 13 3/16/10 3:00:36 PM