Project Type: Client Intake and Assistance
Fields of Law: Human rights law; tenant and landlord
Positions Available: 2 students
About Rexdale Community Legal Clinic
Rexdale CLC provides legal services to low-income communities in North Etobicoke, carried out by lawyers, paralegals and community legal workers, including public legal education and law reform.
Project Details
Rexdale CLC has two distinct priority service areas. The students will assist with Priority A – Supporting Caseworker File Work as their primary objective but must be ready to shift to Priority B – Public Legal Education, depending on demand. The primary focus for students will be in the form of providing support to intake and other caseworkers in all areas of law, including housing, employment, immigration and income maintenance. All work completed by the students will be sent for review to a supervisor and will be saved in Rexdale CLC’s secure network. No clinic work will be saved on students’ personal computers.
Supporting Caseworker File Work:
The students will receive orientation and training at the beginning of their time with RCLC. Through their time with RCLC, they will shadow client meetings, interviews and hearings. There will be opportunities for students to complete important legal research and such research may be used to generate materials to support casework and/or for public legal education sessions. The clinic also experiences a demand for tenant remedies that its staff cannot meet. Representation in tenant repair or abatement matters is very rarely given. Only information or advice is generally given. Time permitting, and in addition to the above priority work, this PBSC project will enable the clinic to expand its services to advice, form-filling and guided instruction for self-representation. However, student volunteers are not permitted to give legal advice. Students will follow these steps, with the guidance of lawyers, paralegals, and community legal workers:
- Learn clinic’s client intake process by shadowing caseworkers, learn clinic’s case selection criteria.
- Perform research on completion of Landlord & Tenant (LTB) forms, and processes, applicable statue law and regulations.
- Schedule phone class with clients identified by clinic intake as needing support in seeking tenant remedies: First, meetings with clients will be assisted by clinic caseworkers. Later, the students will independently meet with clients and provide information on LTB processes and common procedures. Students will only be responsible for providing clients with legal information so that clients can adequately prepare themselves to self-represent at LTB and will not be assisting them with the details of their case directly. Any case-specific questions will be referred to one or both of the supervising lawyers.
- Interview tenants, providing these case details to the clinic lawyers, and completing forms with tenants.
- For repair applications, learn steps tenants should follow before filing application to document their claim, how to use Municipal Licensing inspectors, photography, etc.
- Inform tenants on process for servicing and filing forms and next steps. Although all staff will assist in ensuring students have sufficient knowledge and information to complete their tasks, primary responsibility of oversight will rest with the lawyer supervisors.
- Should the student participate in client intake, hours will be scheduled upon mutual agreement, and a clinic lawyer will be present during the student’s shifts to supervise.
Priority B – Public Legal Education
Part of our clinic’s mandate is to prove public legal education in the community. This generally involves sessions at the Rexdale Hub, partner agencies, or in local community locations such as apartment buildings. We continue to provide this service and students will be asked to research and help prepare for public legal education sessions. Additionally, students will be given the opportunity to shadow other work done at the clinic, as well as conduct research in housing, income maintenance, employment and immigration law.
Role of Student Volunteer(s)
Students will be required to assist in client intake, to conduct legal research, and to create materials for public legal education sessions. The student will be expected to observe the clinic’s intake processes and learn their roles with respect to assisting intake staff, copying documents, etc. Note that these administrative tasks will not exceed 10% of the student’s total assigned workload. Students will primarily be expected to conduct the administrative tasks related to their own work.
Is A Work Plan Required For This Position?
Yes, Students will meet with the organization to go over expectations and dates.
If yes, the student(s) must reach out to the lawyer supervisor, draft a work plan, and submit it by email to the Program Coordinator and the lawyer supervisor by November 1st at the latest. Please note that workplans are required for all legal research and writing projects.
What Type Of Training Will the Organization Provide?
Note: All first year PBSC volunteers and all volunteers working on research projects must also attend a PBSC/Thomson Reuters legal research strategies workshop.
We have an orientation program for all new volunteers and students: students will be required to spend their first two or three visits going through orientation sessions and observing at intake, learning our basic office processes. After that, they will be welcome to use any clinic system training resources available on-line or by webinar.
How Many Hours Per Week Will the Student Volunteer(s) Be Expected to Volunteer?
3-5 hours per week.
Will The Student(s) Be Expected To Show Up For Regular Shifts Each Week?
Regular shifts are preferable. Student needs to make sure to be available during Clinic’s operating hours (9AM - 5PM).
Is Workspace Provided For the Student Volunteer(s)?
Yes, if volunteering in person a workspace will be provided.
Requirements and Expectations
Multilingualism is an asset.
The students must be prepared to be flexible in the assignment of tasks. Our office serves diverse and often extremely marginalized clients. It is vital that students are prepared to treat clients with dignity, respect, and compassion.