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Lawyers who are parenting coordinators are trained as mediators and arbitrators, and have a great deal of training on top of that. The sort of services parenting coordinators provide are a blend of mediation and arbitration, with a bit of counselling thrown in. Parenting coordinators help parents deal with parenting disputes when they arise and, if an agreement cannot be reached through a process that's a lot like mediation, then the parenting coordinator <span class="noglossary">will</span> make a decision resolving the issue through a process that's a lot like arbitration. Lawyers who <span class="noglossary">act</span> as parenting coordinators are neither party's advocate. If they're anyone's advocate, they're the children's advocate.
The website of the [http://www.lawsociety.bc.ca website of the Law Society of British Columbia] is an extremely helpful resource for people who have hired a lawyer or people who are thinking of retaining a lawyer. It provides a lot of information about the lawyer-client relationship and about lawyers' ethical duties to their clients.
==Finding and hiring a lawyer==
The [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/helpmap/service/1044 Canadian Bar Association's Lawyer Referral Service]is another way to find a lawyer. This service keeps a roster of subscribing lawyers in your area, a list of the areas of law they practice and a list of the languages they speak. Call 604-687-3221 in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland or, elsewhere in British Columbia, call 1-800-663-1919.
Yet another way to find a lawyer is by contacting the Legal Services Society (LSS) for [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/helpmap/service/1053 Legal Aid Intake Services]. LSS provides legal aid in British Columbia, and, if you meet their criteria, they <span class="noglossary">will</span> refer you to a lawyer and pay for the lawyer's services to boot. Be warned however, that since the provincial government's catastrophic reduction of funding to LSS in 2002, legal aid <span class="noglossary">will</span> generally only be available for people dealing with situations of family violence or where the abduction of children is a possibility. Go to LSS's website on [http://www.lss.bc.ca/legal_aid/howToApply.php LSS's website on how to apply for legal aid] for more information about their eligibility criteria.
If none of this works out, you can try finding a lawyer through the Yellow Pages or the internet, but only as a last resort. Typing <tt>vancouver family lawyer</tt> or <tt>best divorce lawyer</tt> into a search engine is a terrible way to find a lawyer: while you <span class="noglossary">will</span> get a ton of results, you won't know anything about those lawyers except for the things they say about themselves on their websites. The same thing applies to picking a lawyer through a Yellow Pages ad.
* [http://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=334&t=Law-Society-Rules Law Society of BC Rules]
* [http://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=2578&t=BC-Code-Table-of-Contents Law Society's Code of Professional Conduct]
* [http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation/family-law/regs-explained.htm Family Law Act Regulations Explained – Ministry of Justice Websitewebsite]
* [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/helpmap/service/1044 CBABC Lawyer Referral Service]
* [http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/helpmap/service/1053 LSS Legal Aid Intake Services]