In August, 2002 all BC Legal Services Society’s poverty law direct service delivery primarily funded by the provincial government, were eliminated because of government cutbacks. This research paper reports on the status of poverty law services in British Columbia and records the views of poverty law service providers. The paper researches other delivery models in Canada and in other countries. The report serves as a first step in determining the most pressing poverty law needs in B.C. since the cutbacks and possible options to address them.

This paper discusses the fact that the relationship between law and political activism have unrealistically drawn a line between legislative and judicial institutional structures. This has failed to consider the structure of professional organizations and the impediments to political activisms created by the nature of legal expertise. It posits that community legal aid clinics are an example of the possibilities of integrating law and political activism.

The paper concludes by suggesting that the success of community legal clinics in sustaining legal activism and political activism over time shows that prevailing conceptions of legal professionalism can be challenged, and that democratic institutional and organizational structures are important mechanisms for democratizing expertise and developing an understanding of law not severed from its social and political context.