BC General Election May 14, 2013 - Advance Voting Wed May 8 to Sat May 11 - See Post #433

[inane]

Lawyers were forced to take roll backs on government funded fee payments (aka Legal Aid) and not only that they were forced to only bill artificially low hours that were not reflective of the amount of time it takes to prepare a case.

Lawyers voluntarily then stepped up and provided free (pro bono) services to fill the gap so that persons at risk of incarceration or in dire financial straits in family law matters were protected. It was done voluntarily as part of a lawyer's public responsibility. In fact the BC Law Society expects this of lawyers and the Law Society Code of Conduct states lawyers are expected as a matter of their public duties to "to enhance the profession through activities such as... participating in legal aid and community legal services programs or providing legal services on a pro bono basis".

http://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=2637&t=Chapter-2-%E2%80%93-Standards-of-the-Legal-Profession

And in conjunction with the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association has set up a society to coordinate free legal services in BC - Pro Bono Law of BC which is a non-profit society, funded by the Law Foundation of BC to help community groups throughout the province link up with lawyers who want to volunteer their time and expertise.

"We know that lawyers across BC provide many hours of pro bono services in their communities. But we also know that there are many lawyers who would like to help but don't know what opportunities exist and there are many community groups that could really use their help. We are going to link the two together," said Vancouver lawyer Carman Overholt, President of Pro Bono Law of BC.

The new Society takes its name from the Latin phrase

pro bono publico

, which means "for the public good." Pro Bono Law of BC defines pro bono legal work as "legal services for persons of limited means or not-for-profit organizations, provided without expectation of a fee."

Pro Bono Law of BC's first initiative is a new website that will allow community groups and existing pro bono programs to register requests for pro bono legal services. BC lawyers wanting to provide free legal services can then log on and contact these organizations. The website can be found at (

http://accessprobono.ca/

)

http://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=2061&t=New-society-to-coordinate-free-legal-services-in-BC

Why would teachers who claim they are professionals not do the same?

I'm sure you get excellent tax right offs ???? Do you mean "write-offs"? Perhaps your teacher wife might donate some of her time pro bono to you to teach you proper grammar and spelling, eh?

Lawyers who run their own firms get the same business deductions as anyone else who operates business in Canada for such things as paying rent on office space, paying staff (clerical, paralegal. articled students and associate lawyers. i.e. non partner lawyers, other office expenses, etc.

But unlike any other profession or business the province forces lawyers to pay PST for services rendered and has since the Glen Clark era. At least the playing was levelled when HST was introduced but since HST was removed and PST was re-instated lawyers are back being the only ones paying PST for services rendered.

http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/4625/pst-regime-puts-bc-at-a-disadvantage.html

Very few of the lawyers in BC make $150,000 per year and that is limited to larger firms in Vancouver and some high end specialty boutique firms. As of 2009 the median yearly earnings were slightly less than $70,000 annually and bear in mind that would be for an average of 60 hours per week. Nationally statistics show that the average Canadian lawyer makes about $50,600 a year.

http://www.getlawyer.ca/legal-articles/canadian-lawyer-salaries/

Pretty clearly you are uninformed and/or ignorant of any number of professional and business issues that lawyers face.

1. You make spelling and grammar mistake so spare us the hypocrisy.

2. You are not a teacher yet you claim to know what teachers want/about their profession. Why is your uninformed/ ignorant position on teachers valid yet others positions on lawyers not?

[Wetcoaster]

Lawyers were forced to take roll backs on government funded fee payments (aka Legal Aid) and not only that they were forced to only bill artificially low hours that were not reflective of the amount of time it takes to prepare a case.

Lawyers voluntarily then stepped up and provided free (pro bono) services to fill the gap so that persons at risk of incarceration or in dire financial straits in family law matters were protected. It was done voluntarily as part of a lawyer's public responsibility. In fact the BC Law Society expects this of lawyers and the Law Society Code of Conduct states lawyers are expected as a matter of their public duties to "to enhance the profession through activities such as... participating in legal aid and community legal services programs or providing legal services on a pro bono basis".

http://www.lawsociet...egal-Profession

And in conjunction with the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association has set up a society to coordinate free legal services in BC - Pro Bono Law of BC which is a non-profit society, funded by the Law Foundation of BC to help community groups throughout the province link up with lawyers who want to volunteer their time and expertise.

"We know that lawyers across BC provide many hours of pro bono services in their communities. But we also know that there are many lawyers who would like to help but don't know what opportunities exist and there are many community groups that could really use their help. We are going to link the two together," said Vancouver lawyer Carman Overholt, President of Pro Bono Law of BC.

The new Society takes its name from the Latin phrase

pro bono publico

, which means "for the public good." Pro Bono Law of BC defines pro bono legal work as "legal services for persons of limited means or not-for-profit organizations, provided without expectation of a fee."

Pro Bono Law of BC's first initiative is a new website that will allow community groups and existing pro bono programs to register requests for pro bono legal services. BC lawyers wanting to provide free legal services can then log on and contact these organizations. The website can be found at (

http://accessprobono.ca/

)

http://www.lawsociet...-services-in-BC

Why would teachers who claim they are professionals not do the same?

I'm sure you get excellent tax right offs ???? Do you mean "write-offs"? Perhaps your teacher wife might donate some of her time pro bono to you to teach you proper grammar and spelling, eh?

Lawyers who run their own firms get the same business deductions as anyone else who operates business in Canada for such things as paying rent on office space, paying staff (clerical, paralegal. articled students and associate lawyers. i.e. non partner lawyers, other office expenses, etc.

But unlike any other profession or business the province forces lawyers to pay PST for services rendered and has since the Glen Clark era. At least the playing was levelled when HST was introduced but since HST was removed and PST was re-instated lawyers are back being the only ones paying PST for services rendered.

http://www.canadianl...sadvantage.html

Very few of the lawyers in BC make $150,000 per year and that is limited to larger firms in Vancouver and some high end specialty boutique firms. As of 2009 the median yearly earnings were slightly less than $70,000 annually and bear in mind that would be for an average of 60 hours per week. Nationally statistics show that the average Canadian lawyer makes about $50,600 a year.

http://www.getlawyer...awyer-salaries/

Pretty clearly you are uninformed and/or ignorant of any number of professional and business issues that lawyers face.

1. You make spelling and grammar mistake so spare us the hypocrisy.

2. You are not a teacher yet you claim to know what teachers want/about their profession. Why is your uninformed/ ignorant position on teachers valid yet others positions on lawyers not?

[inane]

And point #1?

[Wetcoaster]

And point #1?

[inane]

Inane and pointless.

[Wetcoaster]

So you honestly don't see the hypocrisy in calling people out for spelling/grammar mistakes while you make similar mistakes? Really?

[inane]

You are making an assumption.

[TOMapleLaughs]

There's no doubt that the NDP's campaign has been an abysmal failure, but it may be too late for Clark to pull out ahead.

Imo People in BC are still prepared to hand one term to the Ndp, and then bring the Libs back in, assuming Clark is replaced with somebody more electable.

[DonLever]

There's no doubt that the NDP's campaign has been an abysmal failure, but it may be too late for Clark to pull out ahead.

Imo People in BC are still prepared to hand one term to the Ndp, and then bring the Libs back in, assuming Clark is replaced with somebody more electable.

[Gurn]

" new leader will likely be a contest between the old guard led by Kelvin Falcon and a new contestant like Dianne Watts"

Maybe Gordon "flip" Wilson will rise again?

[Gross-Misconduct]

It is hard to imagine Christy Clark as opposition leader. Her big ego would not permit it. Besides, Liberal members would likely push her aside as they don't want a loser. I expect her to resign in the not too distant future.

A new leader will likely be a contest between the old guard led by Kelvin Falcon and a new contestant like Dianne Watts.

Yes, I agree a lot of people are punishing the Liberals for a number of reasons by voting for the NDP, another politcal party, or not voting at all. The NDP always get the around 40% of the popular vote in every election. And it is no diiferent this election as they are in the 40-45% range. People are not voting for Socialism, they just want a change.

[DonLever]

David Eby might even take Vancouver-Point Grey from her. Imagine what a blow to her inflated ego that would be.

[Gross-Misconduct]

The NDP held Point Grey for 10 years under Darlene Marzari, 1986-1996, before Gordon Campbell won. And Gordon Campbell never won by any huge vote.

So it will be no surprise if the NDP won, no matter who ran for the Liberals.

The riding is believed by many people to be a safe for the right coalition but that was never the case. It is home to UBC which is full of students who vote for the NDP and there are many rentals there.

[DonLever]

If Christy Clark loses her seat, it makes the decsion for her to resign as Liberal leader much easier. You can't lead the opposition from outside the house and she would have to seak a seat in a byelection vacated by a Liberal MLA who did win.

Basically, her political career will be over if she loses her seat and the NDP form government.

[DonLever]

Liberals trail NDP by just four points in Forum Research poll

Closest gap since the start of the BC election campaign

May 2, 2013 7:48 am

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – With less than two weeks to go until election day, a new poll is suggesting the gap between the NDP and the Liberals is beginning to narrow.

The Forum Research survey was done following Monday’s televised leaders debate.

The NDP still has a 39 per cent lead, but this time the Liberals are very close behind with the 35 per cent. Compare this to the last Forum Research poll released at the end of August 2012, which put the NDP at 45 per cent and the Liberals at 23 per cent with the BC Conservatives at 20.

Since then, the Conservatives have collapsed to a fourth-place nine per cent and the Greens have moved up to 12 per cent support.

This latest poll also gets into seat projections; Forum says these numbers would translate into just a one-seat New Democrat majority, given our first-past-the-post system.

It should be noted that Forum was the same company that predicted the Wildrose party would win a bare majority in last year’s Alberta provincial election, which was won quite handily by Premier Alison Redford and the Conservatives.

[J529]

I'm sorry but not believing the latest polls which NDP only lead by 4-7%. How does the NDP lead by 14% and suddenly drop to a 4-7% lead after 1 debate. Neither Clark or Dix won the debate, despite what Media and right-wingers, some of which claim Clark came off as the winner. Another thing is how all of sudden the women demographic who has opposed Clark, now suddenly support her. Doesn't add up or make sense. Inaccurate Polling or more likely corruption going on as right-wingers are so desperate to stay in power and stop Dix from becoming Premier. They will resort to any and all tactics.

Anyone can do a Poll together, put it out there and hope people are foolish enough to believe it and change their vote.

Forum Research Poll has no credibility at all. Remember Vancouver Mayoral Election where their Poll had a dead even tie, and Robertson cruised to a landslide victory. So much for that poll or this pollster.

1996 BC Election Polls had Liberals winning that election and as we all know, NDP came out on top, despite LIberals winning the Popular Vote.

Most recently in Alberta, Polls had Wild Rose winning and Conservatives won. Once again Polls were wrong.

[J529]

Dix and NDP need to stop positive campaigning shtick and start getting aggressive and attack. Liberals are reminding everyone of 1990s NDP, it's time NDP remind everyone of the 2000s Liberals. This approach the NDP is taking failed in 2009 when James was leader and you would think they would have learned from that, but apparently they didn't. If the NDP should end up losing, I hope Dix, James and the whole works of them are gone. I haven't been focal about Dix, who was a terrible choice for leader. He's awful speaker and of course has the baggage. He may be a smart, intelligent person, but he's no leader. Smiling and campaigning positively isn't going to win you election. Politics is about getting down and dirty.

[DonLever]

Dix and NDP need to stop positive campaigning shtick and start getting aggressive and attack. Liberals are reminding everyone of 1990s NDP, it's time NDP remind everyone of the 2000s Liberals. This approach the NDP is taking failed in 2009 when James was leader and you would think they would have learned from that, but apparently they didn't. If the NDP should end up losing, I hope Dix, James and the whole works of them are gone. I haven't been focal about Dix, who was a terrible choice for leader. He's awful speaker and of course has the baggage. He may be a smart, intelligent person, but he's no leader. Smiling and campaigning positively isn't going to win you election. Politics is about getting down and dirty.

[silverpig]

I'd like to see Clark lose her seat, have the NDP and Liberals tie in seats, and have the Greens pick up 3-4.

[J529]

I'd like to see Clark lose her seat, have the NDP and Liberals tie in seats, and have the Greens pick up 3-4.