Flourishing: A Plan to Strengthen Public Legal Education and Information: The BC PLEI Ecosystem Project

The Public Legal Education and Information (PLEI) Sectoral Planning Project, headed by Dr. Catherine Dauvergne, K.C., was commissioned by the Law Foundation of British Columbia with the goal of making recommendations about how to improve public legal education and information in the province. The project was co-sponsored by the Law Foundation and the province’s Ministry of the Attorney General. We have come to understand this constellation of resources and organizations as the “public legal education and information ecosystem.” There is a wide array of high-quality, easily accessible, clearly written, legal information available in British Columbia. Ecosystem leaders are at the forefront of innovation, and are deeply committed to the communities they serve. Other leaders across Canada have a deep respect for the work done in this province. However, people struggle to locate and understand publicly available legal information. Frontline legal service providers, who often help people understand this information, are stretched very thin and often struggle themselves with highly pressured work and inability to meet their clients’ needs. For those creating and delivering PLEI, a desire for strengthened collaboration and cooperation is strong. This report presents the findings from our research and the 30 recommendations that we believe can address many of the challenges we identified.