Complainant Counsel Panel

Specialized representation for complainants

Legal Aid Alberta has created a specialized panel of roster lawyers to represent complainants and other witnesses who have the right to respond to applications in criminal prosecutions – in most cases, prosecutions involving sexual offences. LAA offers a duty counsel service that provides free assistance responding to such applications, and LAA will use this panel to select lawyers who act as duty counsel.

Benefits of this panel

• Increases the quality of representation for complainants assisted by duty counsel.
• Allows a select group of roster lawyers to gain more experience in a unique area of practice.
• Helps ensure lawyers who assist complainants have the specialized training and experience to assist vulnerable clients.

You want to help vulnerable witnesses.

• You want to ensure that trials remain fair for everyone involved.
• You understand the needs of complainants who are facing the uncertainty of the criminal court process.
• You want to learn more about this specialized area of criminal practice.

You can help extend LAA’s reach.

We need panel members who practice everywhere in Alberta. We welcome applications from across the province, but we particularly encourage applications from roster lawyers who serve communities outside Edmonton, Calgary and surrounding communities – where LAA often struggles to find lawyers to assist complainants.

First preference for complainant-counsel certificates

LAA offers free legal advice to complainants or witnesses in the following circumstances:

• • Complainants responding to section 276 applications (to introduce evidence of other sexual activity);
  • Complainants responding to O’Connor applications (to order production of third‐party records);
  • Complainants and other witnesses with a privacy interest in records (e.g. a complainant’s parent or guardian) responding to section 278.2/278.3 (Mills) applications (to order production of third-party records), and,
  • Complainants responding to section 278.92/278.93 applications (to introduce certain records that relate to the complainant).

This is a duty counsel service, which means it is offered to anyone in Alberta regardless of their financial means and without any need to repay LAA for the legal services. It also means LAA places limits on how much time a lawyer can spend assisting the client.

If LAA decides to issue a complainant certificate to a lawyer on the roster, we will try to connect the client with a lawyer who belongs to the panel. We will only offer the certificate to a lawyer who does not belong to the panel if we cannot find a panel lawyer willing to take the certificate in that geographic service area. Panel members will remain free to decline certificate offers.

Two-to-three-year panel membership

If you are selected, you will remain a member of the panel for about two-to-three years. You are eligible to re-apply, and there is no limit on how long someone can remain on the panel. If you are not selected for the panel, you can apply again in a few years.

Training and education

If you are selected for the panel, LAA may ask you to complete a mandatory one-day training session.

In brief, we are looking for roster lawyers who either have the following competencies, or who have a plan to develop these competencies:

1. Criminal law experience, particularly experience in sexual assault law. Experience bringing or responding to these applications is an asset. Participation in relevant continuing education is also asset (e.g. attending an online training seminar about section 276 applications).

2. Experience providing legal advice to complainants or witnesses in legal proceedings. Participation in similar assistance programs for complainants – such as the Elizabeth Fry Society Independent Legal Advice for Survivors of Sexual Violence program – is an asset.

3. Training or experience in trauma-informed legal practice or client-centred lawyering, or other practice skills that are relevant to the representation of complainants in sexual violence prosecutions.

LAA will review your application and decide whether to select you for the panel. Applications are confidential, but we may reach out to the references you mention in your application. LAA will balance several factors when deciding who to select for the panel, including:

• Whether you already have the competencies we are seeking.
• If you do not have these competences yet, whether you have a plan to develop them.
• How many lawyers have applied to join the panel in different parts of the province.
• The relative strengths of the roster lawyers applying to join the panel, and how well these lawyers have demonstrated their competencies.
• How many certificates we expect to issue to the roster in the parts of the province where the applicants practice.

Appeal
If you are not selected for the panel, you can appeal to the LAA Appeals Committee, in accordance with our administrative policies.

Important dates

December 15, 2021: Application deadline

January 15, 2022: Applicants will be notified

Spring 2024: Next expected application period (subject to LAA’s need to enlarge the panel)

[email protected]

The complainant panel is not a certification of excellence or endorsement of a lawyer’s skills. Likewise, if a lawyer is not selected for the panel, this does not reflect LAA’s views about whether that lawyer can competently represent a young person who faces criminal charges. Lawyers who are selected for the panel must not mention their panel membership in their advertising materials.