If you live in Wellington County, you might be able to spot the law van driving to rural areas offering free advice to those who approach it.
As representatives from the Legal Clinic drive around the county with a van that reads “Free Legal Help" in bold letters, the van is hard to miss.
The initiative started on May 1 with a simple idea. To offer free legal advice to low-income residents on the spot with no appointments necessary.
The Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County helps low-income residents with housing and income issues.
“We consider these things to be the most fundamental things people want. Do you have money? Do you have somewhere to live? But we also offer free advice to all tenants in Guelph of Wellington County," said Anthea Millikin, lawyer and clinic executive director.
“We don't screen whether you’re low income or not. We give tenancy advice all the time. We’re really good at this we like to think, we've been doing it for a lot of years.”
Millikin said the idea of this van was inspired by a similar initiative by lawyers in British Columbia.
“We thought, how cool would it be to have a law bus,” said Millikin.
So the clinic applied to the Law Foundation of Ontario and successfully received a rural regions grant of $100,000 to reach people in rural areas by connecting them with services they need.
Officially called the Wellington County Mobile Legal Service or WellCoMS, the law van will visit 11 rural communities in the Wellington County including Clifford, Harriston, Palmerston, Mt. Forest, Drayton, Arthur, Fergus, Erin, Rockwood and Puslinch.
Millikin said the initiative is essentially a pilot project to understand if the van increases access to justice by reaching people they haven't reached before by making it easier for people to get some help by being in their community.
So how does this process work?
The van is staffed by outreach workers. For anyone seeking legal consultation on the spot or for an area of law that the clinic practices such as housing or income issues, the outreach workers will skype a caseworker and do a consultation on the spot.
They don't offer advice on criminal matters.
“The response has been tremendous. Like it's just been crazy. We've had so much positive feedback from both social media and in person. People have come to the van just to check it out to say what are you doing,” said Millikin.
“People appreciate that yes I can talk to a lawyer right now. I appreciate it because we are getting people help on the spot.”
The Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County has been operating since 2002 and Millikin said it is one of the last places in the province to get a clinic. And while they have connected with a lot of people over the years, Millikin said she feels they are connecting with people in the van that they’ve never spoken to before.
“Most people who come to the van are people who didn't know about us and that's success for us because if we can provide a little bit of information and guidance and advice, then that's really important,” she said.
“Even though we have met people in every part of the county before, because the van attracts attention because it is something a little different, because it's a very informal kind of setting, people come up and are curious.”
With large signs, a pop-up tent and free coffee, Millikin said they're trying to create an approachable set up that will increase the number of people willing to approach the van to ask a question.
Millikin said it also eliminates the entire process of calling a law office which most people dread.
“For anyone with something on their mind, they can walk up to the van and meet the representatives from the clinic in the van who would then connect them to a caseworker in the van through skype on the computer,” said Millikin.
The clinic also tries to partner with the community such as family health teams, the library, east wellington community services and social services in order to figure out who else can help support the resident in their journey said Millikin.
“There are all kinds of things that happen in peoples lives, and while we might not be able to help you directly with every single one of those, we have good suggestions on how people can get help,” said Millikin.
“Its really nice to be able to talk to someone and be able to provide that assurance and provide that direction or to provide that guidance to the next step and sometimes that initial contact at the van will, of course, lead to an appointment or further consultation to meet someone out in the county,” said Millikin.
Millikin said the Legal Clinic wants people in the Guelph area to know that people in Guelph have that same ability to visit them in the clinic and access free consultation.
“If you're in Guelph and you feel like you have a barrier to get to us. Tell us about that and we will work with you to cross that barrier cause were going to make sure that transportation is not an obstacle for those looking to get help,” said Millikin.
