Settlement Workers Guide to Making Effective Referrals

This section discusses how settlement workers can make useful referrals for more legal information or for legal advice and how to help your client prepare for the next step.

You’ve helped your client identify a legal issue and have shown them where to find some legal information. Many clients will need more legal information or help understanding the legal information than you, as a settlement worker, can provide. It is not the role of a settlement worker to provide ongoing assistance to clients with legal issues. However, you can help by showing clients:

• where they can go for more legal help
• what they can do to prepare

The Clicklaw HelpMap is a good tool to use with clients so they can then use the website themselves. You can show them how to find agencies in their community as well as details such as:

• contact information for the agency
• whether the agency provides help over the phone, drop in or by appointment
• hours
• whether there is a fee
• if there a low income eligibility requirement for the service
• if an interpreter will be provided

You’ve already told your client that you can only provide basic legal information. This will help them understand the reason why you are showing them where they can go for more legal help.

Help a client prepare for the next step

Clients will benefit from being well prepared before going to another agency, meeting with a community legal advocate or meeting with a lawyer. Free and low-cost legal advice and representation services have limited time available for each client. When the client comes prepared, the person they see has more time to provide legal advice. Clients who pay for their lawyer themselves will get the most value for their money if they are prepared. Preparation can include learning more about their legal issue, organizing information about their situation and understanding more about the services they will receive. Encourage your client to learn more about their legal issue. You have shown them where to find legal information and have perhaps provided some print information. Explain the benefits of using this information to better understand their legal issue. Clients can also prepare by following a few basic steps to organize information about their situation ahead of time. Encourage clients to:

• write down what happened, in the order it happened, with dates,
• write out their questions,
• bring all documents to the meeting, including their contact information, and
• check before the meeting if an interpreter is provided, if necessary, and make arrangements to have someone there to help them if interpreters are not provided.

The testing of the claims in a court proceeding at a formal hearing before a judge with the jurisdiction to hear the proceeding. The parties present their evidence and arguments to the judge, who then makes a decision resolving the parties' claims against one another that is final and binding on the parties unless successfully appealed. See "action," "appeal," "argument," "claim," "evidence" and "jurisdiction."

In law, the re-examination of a term of an order or agreement, usually to determine whether the term remains fair and appropriate in light of the circumstances prevailing at the time of the review. In family law, particularly the review of an order or agreement provided for the payment of spousal support. See "de novo," "family law agreements," "order" and "spousal support."

A resolution of one or more issues in a court proceeding or legal dispute with the agreement of the parties to the proceeding or dispute, usually recorded in a written agreement or in an order that all parties agree the court should make. A court proceeding can be settled at any time before the conclusion of trial. See "action," "consent order," "family law agreements" and "offer."

Under the Family Law Act, a term that describes the time a person who is not a guardian of a child, including a parent who is not a guardian, has with that child. Under the Divorce Act, a term that describes the time a person who is not a married spouse has with a child. See "guardian" and "parental responsibilities."

In law, to formally deliver documents to a person in a manner that complies with the rules of court. Service may be ordinary (mailed or delivered to a litigant's address for service), personal (hand-delivered to a person), or substituted (performed in a way other than the rules normally require). See "address for delivery," "ordinary service," "personal service" and "substituted service."

(1) A lawyer or a person other than a lawyer who helps clients with legal issues, or (2) to argue a position on behalf of someone.

A person licensed to practice law in a particular jurisdiction by that jurisdiction's law society. See "barrister and solicitor."

In contract law, a promise made by someone about a certain state of affairs, like "the plumbing was replaced last year" or "I had a vasectomy two years ago." See "misrepresentation."

A mandatory direction of the court that is binding and enforceable upon the parties to a court proceeding. An "interim order" is a temporary order made following the hearing of an interim application. A "final order" is a permanent order, made following the trial of the court proceeding or the parties' settlement, following which the only recourse open to a dissatisfied party is to appeal. Failing to abide by the terms of an order may constitute contempt of court. See "appeal," "consent order," "contempt of court," "decision" and "declaration."