Duty counsel lawyers refusing criminal cases

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Duty counsel lawyers across the province are refusing all criminal cases this month.
    
The Trial Lawyers Association has been protesting government cuts to legal aid since January.
    
Bentley Doyle with the TLA says if you walk into a courthouse, you’ll see a difference.

“So you’d see people that didn’t have a lawyer that needed one, or you’d see someone representing themselves, and duty council are called upon as sort of the front line to take preliminary advice.”

Doyle says lawyers are now talking about what to do next. “What there is, is ongoing discussions about what to do next, what form of job action or awareness raising that takes. That’s not decided yet, lawyers are still meet regularly on this.”

If there’s no response from the province, lawyers could expand their protest to include family law.

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