Restorative Justice Week is Nov. 20 – 26, 2022.

Legal Aid Alberta in partnership with the Calgary John Howard Society is hosting a virtual information session on Nov. 21, 2022 from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. to share firsthand insights about restorative justice.

In this virtual session you will:

• Receive an overview of restorative justice and common misconceptions
• Learn about the speakers’ experiences with the referral guidelines, process, and reporting system for Alberta’s Restorative Justice Pilot Project
• Hear from the lawyer with the first successful Calgary graduate from the pilot project about lessons learned

Learn more and register for this free event.

Attend this interactive clinic hosted by the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) on June 15, 2023, from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (MT), for an in-depth look at pensions law in the context of family situations, particularly as it relates to the division of family property.

Attendees will have the opportunity to work through family law case files, where both parties have pensions, to develop strategies for addressing pension issues in matters involving the division of family property.

Price: 

•  $445 + GST

Register for the in-person session or live stream option.

The Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) is hosting a number of programs in May.

Register for a program below, or view the full events calendar.

Visit the LESA website for more information.

The Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) is hosting a number of programs in March.

Register for a program below, or view the full events calendar.

Visit the LESA website for more information.

The Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) is hosting a number of programs in February.

Register for a program below, or view the full events calendar.

Visit the LESA website for more information.

More and more cases rely on digital evidence. How can lawyers recover digital information from computers, mobile devices, and cloud sources in ways that will be accepted by the courts? How can they certify that the data is authentic? Collecting digital evidence in a secure manner, using sound forensic methodologies, is key.

Join the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) and a digital forensic expert on Nov. 28, 2022, from 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. (MT), to gain a greater understanding of how this resource can support your cases and develop strategies to unlock digital evidence.

Price: 

•  $95 + GST

Register to attend this webinar.

Join the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) and experienced faculty on Nov. 25, 2022, from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (MT), as they answer questions and engage in thoughtful discussions about how to address family violence in chambers.

Topics include:

• Obtaining and providing evidence
• Relevant legal tests and principles
• Issues related to parent-child contact resistance
• Appropriate parenting outcomes in cases of family violence

Price: 

• $445 + GST

Register for the in-person session or virtual live stream option.

Access to civil justice is in a state of emergency. The legal needs of Canadians remain largely unmet, despite efforts by the legal profession and governments to address the issue. In response to this crisis, both lawyers and non-lawyers are innovating to provide legal services in more accessible and affordable ways. However, their initiatives are sometimes stopped in their tracks by the rules governing the legal profession.

Law societies in various jurisdictions have recently implemented Innovation Sandboxes, which allow for some of these rules to be temporarily lifted to encourage the development of innovative pilot projects. These initiatives echo a recent CBA Resolution that called for law societies to permit regulatory innovations that have the potential to improve accessibility, affordability, and quality of civil legal services.

This webinar will provide a deep dive into these new sandboxes. It will explore the reasons for which they were established, the parameters along which they analyze and approve projects, the safeguards they implement to protect the public, and some of the early results they have generated in their first months or years of operation. We will also discuss some of the differences between these sandboxes and the prospective regulatory changes they may yield in the future.

Sandboxes: What’s the Buzz? Tell Me What’s Happening
Presented by the CBA Access to Justice Subcomittee
Thursday December 8, 2022
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. MT

The Canadian Bar Association is hosting their annual Family Youth Provincial Court Town Hall Meeting on Monday, Nov. 14 from 12:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. (MT).

Registration fee: 

• CBA Full Subscribers: No charge
• CBA Webcast Subscribers: No charge
• On-Demand Subscribers: $15
• Non-Section Subscribers: $15
• CBA Law Student Members: No charge

Register by 12 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2022, to attend.

Legal Aid Alberta has assembled an expert panel of speakers to cover a variety of topics relating to mental health and the criminal code on Nov. 22, 2022, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (MT).

Topics include:

• Forensic psychiatry for lawyers – A crash course in terminology and key concepts
• Understanding (and challenging) risk assessments
• Forensic psychiatry and sex offenders: What lawyers need to know (risk, treatment, etc.)
• The law of fitness and NCRMD (i.e. what comes before the Review Board)
• Introduction to practice at the Alberta Review Board
• Introduction to the Mental Health Act and Mental Health Review Panel process
• Mental Health Court & practice tips for working with mentally ill clients
• Trauma informed practice

Speakers:

• Judge Michelle Collinson, Provincial Court of Alberta
• Dr. Raheed Syed, MD, FRCPC, Forensic Psychiatrist, Alberta Health Services
• Alexandra Seaman, Defence Counsel, DDSG Criminal Law
• Amna Qureshi, Staff Lawyer, Legal Aid Alberta
• Andrew Holko, Staff Lawyer, Legal Aid Alberta

Register to attend this free event online.