Established in 1979, BWSS – Battered Women’s Support Services takes action to end gender-based violence through community-based interventions, support services, legal and systemic advocacy, education and training, violence prevention and research and policy.
BWSS Legal Services and Advocacy Program is a community legal program providing legal services and advocacy for self-identifying women survivors of gender-based violence.
For 43 years, BWSS – Battered Women’s Support Services has provided a community based legal advocacy program in Metro Vancouver providing legal supports for women and femmes who have experienced intimate partner, domestic and sexualized violence helping survivors navigate the Canadian legal system.
Our supervised staff, interns and volunteer lawyers provide legal information, accompaniment to court and legal appointments, we appeal when legal aid has been denied and we aid with documents and affidavits preparation.
Our legal advocacy includes family, child protection, criminal and immigration law.
It cannot be underscored enough how important access to justice and our Legal Services and Advocacy Program are for women’s long-term safety and freedom from violence.
Through accessing our Legal Services and Advocacy Program women can leave their abusive relationship, receive more fair custody and access orders increasing the safety for the children, able to have a voice in mediation proceedings and very importantly having access to legal representation in their legal cases.
To make an appointment to see a legal advocate
please call our Crisis and Intake line 1-855-687-1868
or in Metro Vancouver 604-687-1867.
Here is a list of the legal services we offer:
Legal Advice and Full Representation
Approximately 80% of the women who access our services do not have legal representation because they are ineligible for government-funded legal aid and cannot afford to retain a private lawyer.
We will take on full representation files based on: the current case load, availability of time, the number of law students volunteering at BWSS, and the complexity of legal issues involved. BWSS will also consider if the following applies:
- The woman has been denied legal representation by Legal Services Society;
- The woman has appealed the Legal Services Society’s decision of denial and the appeal was unsuccessful;
- There are multiple barriers that prevent the woman from self-representation, including language, disability, complexity of legal issues, gender orientation, and impact of trauma;
- The use of the court system by the abuser as way to intimidate or harass or to continue any form of violence;
- The inability to privately retain a lawyer, such as financial difficulties; and
- The legal issue is either a family law, child protection or immigration law matter.
Call 604-687-1867 or 604-687-1868 ext. 307 to apply.
Family Law Clinic
BWSS provides summary legal advice clinics in family law every month with volunteer lawyers from the community. These clinics are able to offer necessary summary legal advice to women on a continuous basis while they are unrepresented in the family law system.
Call 604-687-1867 for the clinic schedule.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
BWSS has been standing in solidarity with Indigenous women across Turtle Island in calling for a National Inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada since before British Columbia’s Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry (MWCI). On top of running a crisis line and offering legal, advocacy and counselling services, we are actively involved in a coalition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls formulated out of the failure of both group and family participation in the MWCI. Our efforts working in western Canada and northwest British Columbia through an initiative called Women’s Leadership and Training brought together Indigenous women to organize local responses to violence toward. We are an active long-time member of the February 14th Women’s Memorial March committee to honour Indigenous women who have lost their lives to violence in downtown eastside Vancouver.
In August 2017, BWSS was successful in obtaining Standing to make submission in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. A team of dedicated and passionate women from BWSS, led by the Indigenous Women’s Program, in collaboration with the Legal Services and Advocacy Program, are currently in the process of drafting the written submissions in order to give a voice to the countless Indigenous women and girls who have accessed our services and continue to be invisible in the justice system.
Legal Advocacy Workshops
Who & What: For women who have or are experiencing violence in their relationships and require legal support with the resulting family law issues. Lawyers from the community with experience in family law will facilitate all workshops.
Where: at the BWSS office – call 604-687-1867 for location
*Upcoming* MCFD Advocacy Clinics
BWSS is proud to be one of the first organizations in the province of BC to provide advocacy workshops to women who have involvement with the Ministry of Child and Family Development.
The Indigenous Women’s Program, in collaboration with the Legal Services and Advocacy Program, will be providing monthly clinics to women who have an open file with the MCFD. Staff and volunteers will provide women with short-term support, legal advocacy, court and MCFD meeting accompaniments, and strategic advocacy to support women in keeping themselves and their children safe. Watch this space for updates on the dates of these clinics!
Goals of the Legal Services and Advocacy Program
To ensure that the issue of violence against women is taken into consideration throughout the entire legal process.
To work towards ensuring that the legal system is accountable to women, by advocating with police, lawyers and others who work within the legal system.
To improve legal responses to women who have experienced abuse in intimate relationships.
To lobby for the right of women to have accessible legal representation throughout their legal proceedings.
To lobby for the right of women to have adequate and secure social assistance.
