Canadian Lawyer

REGIONAL WRAP-UP Small claimS duty couNSel proJect GrowiNG biGGer iN alberta confronted with disputes over a few thousand dollars, some- times less. But Yoshida finds it's enormously rewarding work. Why? "I think it's the reason most lawyers become lawyers — we want to help people." Higa cautions that the project, which started last October, "is still in its infancy and we'll have to see how it works." But "ideally we would have lawyers on a full-time basis and maybe move towards duty counsel actually appearing, like in criminal or family court." Right now, the Calgary program runs three days a week. That kind of arrangement is the dream of the dynamic and persuasive Gillian Marriott, executive director of non-profit Pro Bono Law Alberta. "That would be amazing," she says. But what she needs, and what she is diligently working for, is more volunteers and more firms to come on board. Marriott is the driving force behind the small-claims proj- ect. "We have just moved to three days a week in Calgary, and in January we started a once-a-week small-claims pilot proj- ect in Edmonton." Marriott says there are also "discussions" about starting similar programs in smaller Alberta centres such as Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. "It's all about access to justice," she says, and that is why there are no income limits on clients. Marriott rejects suggestions that persuading good lawyers to volunteer for small claims courts means they are being poached from more vital pro bono work in family or criminal law. "The criminal and the family law fields are so specialized and so intensely emotional that a lot of lawyers will not do that on a pro bono basis." But she says a lot of people want to help and small claims fits in their comfort zone. Erin Runnalls, an associate in Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP's Calgary office, is the firm's lead on the small claims project and has helped work out a lot of the kinks. She has been a long- time volunteer and has no difficulty with family or criminal law, but she finds this project especially satisfying. "You face a new problem every time [a client] walks in the door." For Runnalls, pro bono is part of her firm's and its individual lawyers' "responsibility to give back and provide access to justice." And she believes small claims work is important work. "We deal with very real people," she says. "People with very real problems." — GEOFF ELLWAND writerlaw@gmail.com News Feed New year - New look! www.lerners.ca Lerners' TOP 5 Lerners picks the Court of Appeal's Top 5 civil Duck hunting pals use shotguns to fulfil Edmonton lawyer's dying wish t was a send-off that ended with a bang. Gary Cooper, a veteran Edmonton lawyer, died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 68. Before he died, Cooper demonstrated his unique sense of humour by requesting his friends give him a very special farewell. Cooper, like many of his friends, was an avid duck hunter. He asked that some of his ashes be loaded into shotgun shells and become part of a 21-shotgun salute. In November, his friends showed up at a party hosted by Cooper's widow, Anne, at her rural home west of Edmonton. Toasts were drunk and guests were handed specially loaded shells. And true to their pal's dying wish, they pointed their shotguns skyward and blew Gary Cooper away. I — GE decisions from the past month, and, for diversion, the top 5 ( ctional) cases we would like the court to hear this year. www.lernersappeals.ca/netletters Catastrophic Impairment - Neil Wheeler comments on how the Court of Appeal decision in Kursnierz affects those injured in accidents. http://bit.ly/wcL6li www.lerners.ca www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com FEBRUA R Y 2012 13 erners_Newsfeed_CL_Feb_12.indd 1 12-01-16 11:31 PM C ontinued fr om pa g e 11 photo courteSy of NormaN c. SuvaN

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