Legal Aid B.C.

Ankita Banerjee is now accepting files approved with Legal Aid B.C.

 

  • Divorce

  • Property division

  • Children (i.e. guardianship, custody, parenting time)

  • Child support

  • Spousal Support

  • Separation

  • Revising order / agreements

  • Breaches of orders / agreement

Consider the FAQ’s below for more info…

Ankita can help with…

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 Frequently asked questions

How do I get approved for Legal Aid

  • Application for Legal Aid B.C. can be completed online at https://legalaid.bc.ca/apply-online or you can contact via phone at 604-408-2172 (Greater Vancouver) or 1-866-577-2525 (Elsewhere in BC).

  • The approval for legal aid with Legal Aid B.C. is based primarily on annual income. Your ability to have access to property which could fund legal service is a secondary consideration.

    The threshold for income is dependent on the number of family members in a household. For 1-4 family members net monthly income must be under $5,640. For further information please visit the Do I Qualify Legal aid page.

  • Legal aid will at a minimum require that you produce your most recent income tax returns, and pay slips. In some circumstances they will require further verification such as bank statements and other income documents.

  • At the time of your application, bring up your desire to work with Ankita and Legal Aid will approach her directly.

  • You may be able to change counsel, through making a change of counsel request.

    Legal Aid BC only allows a change of lawyer in limited circumstances. It requires that you still qualify for legal aid (reaffirming your financial status) and having a “good reason” (such as quality of service concerns) based on realistic expectations.

    The application is completed via your online client portal. If you need assistance filling this out, please contact us.

  • If you are currently working with legal aid you can have a new issue added to your contract.

    If you have resolved everything and are no longer working with legal aid, you will need to make a new application to obtain support.

    When making your application be sure to ask to work with Ankita.

  • Yes! At any time you may hire Ankita with a private retainer. If this occurs, you will pay her regular hourly rate and be asked to pay a retainer against the work she will perform for you.

Approved, What now?

Types of Legal Aid Contracts

  • This type of contract is a 2 year contract that affords you 35 hours of in court services and 35 hours of out of court services.

    Extension may be granted in rare circumstances but frequently due to resources, the 70 hour combined limit is a hard limit.

  • This is a contract for people that are above the financial threshold for a family standard contract. It is only for 6 months and has 14 hours of general preparation and 4 hours of court time.

  • Ankita can help you request an extension for additional hours based on the urgency and gravity of the outstanding issues.

    If this gets denied, then you can either continue with Ankita in a private retainer where you would pay Ankita’s standard rates, you can continue with the process on your own, or you can approach other probono services outside of legal aid.

  • While on a legal aid contract, I am limited to assisting with the issues approved by legal aid.

    If you have issues that are not approved, I can only deal with these after the legal aid contract is expired and we reach an agreement on a private retainer.

    Typically issues of property division, pension division and divorce are not approved for legal aid contracts.

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