Family Law

Open to: 1L, 2L, 3L

Project Summary

Component 1: Research and Resource Building 

Students will be researching questions related to family, criminal, child protection and immigration law relevant to survivors of gender-based violence. This will support WomenatthecentrE's efforts to create and maintain PLE resources for survivors of gender-based violence on the legal processes that may affect them or their families. 

Component 2: Facilitating Trainings 

Students will develop and facilitate legal training workshops to WomenatthecentrE staff, students, and volunteers. The content of the training will be drawn from the students’ research in Component 1. 

Type: Public Legal Education, Research

Area(s) of Law: Family, Children and Youth, Child Protection

Community served: Women, Domestic violence survivors, self-represented litigants 

# of Student Volunteer Positions: 3

Commitment: 3-5 hours/week

Special Requirements: Preference will be given to female-identifying candidates; Knowledge and understanding of gender-based violence is required. Any social work experience, gender studies, and/or experience working within an anti-oppression framework would be an asset; Strong teamwork and collaboration skills; Experience developing educational materials/instructional guides or courses. This is a virtual project.

Open to: 1L, 2L

Project Summary

Component 1: Note Taking

Students will sit-in on summary legal advice appointments between women and a volunteer or staff lawyer and take detailed notes, which will then be provided to women following the appointment.  

Component 2: Legal Research and Resource Creation

Students will assist in preparing case law summaries and/or brief legal informational handouts for family court support workers across Ontario to help them better understand a particular family law matter. Students may also be asked to prepare brief legal memos on an assigned topic in family law for internal use by the staff team.  

Component 3: Court Accompaniment

Students will accompany women to court appearances, including motions and conferences. Their role will be to provide support and take detailed notes, which will then be provided to women following the court appearance. 

Type: Client Services, Public Legal Education

Area(s) of Law: Family Law

Community served: Women, Domestic violence survivors, Self-represented litigants

# of Student Volunteer Positions: 1 each from Lincoln Alexander, Osgoode, UofT 

Commitment: 3-5 hours/week

Special Requirements: Flexible hours outside of scheduled client meetings, Background and interests in working with women who have experienced intimate partner violence would be an asset

Open to: 1Ls and 2Ls

Project Summary

The Family Court Support Program is funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. Clinic staff are Court-based 4 days per week and meet with clients to provide legal information, referrals, safety planning and support at the three Toronto family courts (311 Jarvis, 361 University, 47 Sheppard). The Clinic administers the English-language Court Support Program in Toronto and makes referrals to the French language Court Support Program (OASIS). The Family Court Support Workers work with duty counsel, Legal Aid Ontario, shelters, Victim/Witness Assistance Workers, and court staff and other external service providers. Court accompaniment is also sometimes provided.

Type: Client Services

Area(s) of Law: Family Law, with some intersecting issues in immigration and criminal law

Community served: Domestic violence survivors, women, racialized communities

Number of Student Volunteer Positions: 1 per school

Commitment: 3-5 hours/week

Special Requirements: 

• Students will be asked their availability for attending weekly shifts at one of the 3 Toronto courthouses at the beginning of each semester.

• Students will be required to remotely attend a mandatory Clinic orientation session together at an arranged time before their Clinic placement begins.

• Family law knowledge is preferred, but not necessary. 

• Past work with survivors of violence would be an asset.

Open to: 2L, 3L

Project Summary

Students will be tasked with completing and compiling research to create plain language information pamphlets on the topics outlined above. If the students have time and are able to, they may present their research on one of these topics. However, this is optional. The different topics include:

• Divorce and child custody 

• Tenants and landlord rights and responsibilities 

• Spousal abuse and legal proceedings 

• Employment (health and safety, discrimination in the workplace)

Following their completion, these pamphlets will be distributed to ACCTs clients. Each student will select one topic and complete the research and pamphlet for it. If the organization finds that this is too much work for the student, students may pair up and the number of topics can be cut down.

Type: Public Legal Education, Research

Area(s) of Law: Family law and the Residential Tenancies Act

Community served: Immigrants, refugees & newcomers, Linguistic minorities, Racialized communities

Number of Student Volunteer Positions: 1

Commitment: 3-5 hours/week

Special Requirements: 

• The student is expected to work professionally and punctually with good time-management skills. 

• As they will be working remotely, they should maintain good remote communication.

Open to: 1L, 2L, 3L

Project Summary

The project will centre on preparing and presenting Public Legal Education (PLE) presentations for Toronto area community groups, including shelters for women affected by partner violence.

Students will work with METRAC’s legal information materials, to conduct legal research and to develop and adapt new presentation materials as needed. PLE presentations will explain in clear language, various aspects of the law and legal processes that women are likely to encounter,some of which may be related to information posted on the OWJN and FLEW websites.(www.owjn.org; www.onefamilylaw.ca).

The final outputs of the project may include PLE PowerPoint presentations and/or other written resources, which will be used by students to conduct legal information presentations for the community. Students may also prepare articles, case-comments or blog-style posts on various legal issues in collaboration with METRAC staff.

Type: Public Legal Education

Area(s) of Law: Family, Criminal, Human Rights Law

Community served: Domestic violence survivors, Women, Indigenous

Number of Student Volunteer Positions: 2 

Commitment: 3-5 hours/week

Special Requirements for Student Volunteers: 

• Experience with public presentations in plain and clear language is an asset but is not essential as training will be provided

• Given the sensitivity of a shelter environment and working with women exposed to violence, this PBSC placement is limited to woman-identified volunteers. Students must have an awareness ofand interest in social justice, human rights, feminism, applied anti-oppression/anti-racism practices,and gender-based violence against women, Two-Spirit, Nonbinary and trans issues. 

• Candidates should have demonstrated ability to work independently. Where a student is identified as having difficulty committing adequate time or engagement with the project, the supervisor will schedule a meeting to discuss a satisfactory solution, including but not limited to reasonable accommodations and early departure from the project.

Open to: 1L, 2L, 3L

Project Summary

The Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) has developed a remote community outreach program to identify and address knowledge gaps related to various legal fields for Asian community members. The aim of the program is to partner with community organizations to create and provide public legal education in the form of presentations, workshops, webinars, recorded videos, social media/blog posts and plain language resources. This project involves developing a Family Law power-point presentation and creating accompanying pamphlets for community members to take away in various topics, including family law. 

Type: Public Legal Education

Area(s) of Law: General project 

Community served: Racialized communities, Linguistic minorities, women

Number of Student Volunteer Positions: 1

Commitment: 3-5 hours/week

Special Requirements: none