What It Is:

The Legal Referral Service connects people with disabilities to lawyers who can give them free legal advice.

 

How It Works and What We Do:

When we get a call, we can set up a free one-hour appointment with one of over 300 volunteer lawyers.  We have volunteers that practice every area of law, so whatever your concern is, we’ll probably be able to help you out.

Our network of volunteer lawyers extends across Nova Scotia, from big cities to small communities.  Because of this, we can usually connect people with lawyers that work in or near their communities.  Even it’s not possible to set up a face-to-face meeting between you and a lawyer, we may be able to set up a telephone consultation instead.

 

What We Don’t Do:

Our Legal Referral Service sets people up with a free one-hour appointment.  Since it’s just a single one-hour appointment, our volunteer lawyers won’t be able to follow through a legal problem from start to finish, in the same way that Legal Aid does.  You will have to pay the lawyer for time after the first free appointment, unless you make special arrangements with the lawyer.

Because our service only provides a single free session, our lawyers don’t represent people in court on a volunteer basis.

 

Who Qualifies:

Any Nova Scotian with a disability can use our Legal Referral Service.  Your disability doesn’t need to have anything to do with your legal problem.

 

Why It’s Important:

reachAbility operates the only free legal service in Atlantic Canada that is dedicated to helping people with disabilities.  Because one out of five Nova Scotians self-identifies as having a disability, people with disabilities are a significant part of our population.  Because people with disabilities can face greater challenges with transportation, physical access, cognitive issues, finances, and social stigma, there is an unequal playing field between people who have disabilities and people who don’t.  This means that many people with disabilities may not have fair access to legal resources.

reachAbility is committed to helping people with disabilities get fairer access to legal resources in Nova Scotia.

 

How to Get In Touch:

You can call or email the Legal Services department at reachAbility.  Our telephone and TTY number is (902) 429-5878 for people who live in the Halifax Regional Municipality, or 1-866-429-5878 for people who live outside of Halifax.  You can email legal services at this address: legal@reachability.org.

Be sure to get in touch with us if you, or someone you know with a disability, has a legal question that needs answering.  If you have any questions about our Legal Referral Service, or aren’t sure about your legal situation, please ask – we’ll always do our best to help.

 

Thanks to:

Our Legal Referral Service couldn’t exist without funding provided by the Law Foundation of Nova Scotia, or without the generous time commitment of our volunteer lawyers.

 

Other Legal Resources:

Nova Scotia Legal Aid:

In Nova Scotia, Legal Aid provides legal representation if you have a very low income (around the level of Social Assistance) and you’re charged with a criminal offence or have a family law issue that involves children.

For information on finding your local Legal Aid office, call toll-free 1-877-420-6578.

Dalhousie Legal Aid:

Dalhousie Legal Aid provides lawyers for people that qualify for Nova Scotia Legal Aid.  They also have staff who specialize in poverty law issues, like landlord-tenant disputes, and they offer legal information sessions.

Call them at (902) 423-8105 or email them at legalaid@dal.ca.

Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia:

The Legal Information Society runs a telephone service that provides legal information.  They also create pamphlets and information packages that explain all sorts of different legal situations in plain language.  Finally, they also run a legal referral service for all Nova Scotians.

Dial-a-Law (24-hour recorded information on different kinds of law):            (902) 420-1888

Legal Information Line and Lawyer Referral Service:              (902) 455-3135  or  1-800-665-9779