Although they are no longer operating out of a retrofitted school bus purchased for $50 and painted with psychedelic colours, the original goal of Student Legal Services of Edmonton hasn't changed.

Since its modest beginnings in a small office on Boyle Street with a volunteer staff of 14-and with a sojourn on the psychedelic bus-Student Legal Services has grown to encompass two offices, one downtown and one on the University of Alberta campus, and 280 volunteers-more than half of all the students in the U of A's law school. But even while it has grown over the years, Student Legal Services' ultimate goal of helping underprivileged citizens in the city of Edmonton gain access to legal information and have a voice in the justice system has stayed the same.

As Tim Smythe, executive coordinator of Student Legal Services' Criminal Project explains, the act of helping someone out of a jam is far more rewarding than the practical experience each student gains by participating in the program.

"We get a lot of volunteers-people really enjoy doing it and there's a lot of need out there. This is the most we've ever had-it's steadily gone up as the number of students has gone up," he says from behind his desk at Emily Murphy House, the on-campus office of Student Legal Services, which is named after the famous Albertan legal crusader, the first female magistrate in the British Empire. "The feeling that you get from helping someone who doesn't have anyone else to help them is really rewarding."

Student Legal Services of Edmonton concentrates their resources in four main areas. The Criminal Project defends people accused of summary offences, which have little chance of jail time, or works with the accused and the Crown prosecutor to get a better deal for their client, a reduced fine or alternative measures-a program by which an individual convicted of an offence completes community service or makes some other kind of restitution in exchange for having no criminal record.

The Pro Bono Students of Canada is a nationwide project that Student Legal Services participates in, through which students provide legal services to non-profit community groups or assist local lawyers in providing pro bono services.

"Not-for-profit organizations around the city don't necessarily have the resources to retain legal counsel for certain things," explains Smythe of the work Pro Bono Students of Canada does. "We'll get a group of about four students-usually two upper-year students and two first-year students-and they'll do things like review documents for them. It's just little things that they would pay a lawyer for, we do all the legwork."

The Civil and Family Law Project provides assistance on issues such as landlord and tenant disputes, Workers' Compensation Board hearings and appeals, debt or collection agency problems, small claims and student appeals. Though the project does do some work in family law, it concentrates mainly on civil law because of the restrictions placed on student volunteers in the justice system.

"It's been a little bit of a touchy issue in the past with SLS doing family law, but not a lot of lawyers will pick up Legal Aid certificates for family law issues and there really isn't a lot of people who do family law in the city so the family law office at Legal Aid is overworked and there's a lot of people in the lower income areas of Edmonton that really need help with it," explains Smythe. "We're trying our best to fill a couple of holes."

The final area that Student Legal Service of Edmonton concentrates on is the Legal Education and Reform Project. Encompassing various outreaches to at-risk citizens in Edmonton, student volunteers provide information at places like iHuman, the Bissell Centre, Hope Mission and, through the Prostitutes at Risk program, at various locations throughout the city where sex trade workers congregate. Though the education and reform project constitutes one of the smaller divisions of Student Legal Services, in some ways it is the very backbone of the organization.
"This organization was founded as a legal activist organization," explains Josh Lam, executive coordinator of the Legal Education and Reform Project. "It wasn't necessarily about going to court for people; it was mostly about helping underprivileged people-especially in areas where the law has discriminated against them, has just left them out.

"In the past we really focused on prostitution law because they were punishing prostitutes more than they were punishing johns. That's one of the things we really changed dramatically. Since then we've focused on things like mental health courts, sometimes we get into immigration law, aboriginal rights, but mostly we try and deal with homeless rights. One of the topics that's come up recently is the anti-panhandling bylaw. One of the things I've been working on with a lot of the people in the office is to try and persuade the city that panhandling is a microcosm of a bigger problem."

Members of the public who require the assistance of Student Legal Services of Edmonton will most likely come into contact with the Criminal Project. If an individual is charged with an offence, they can come to either the downtown office or the one on campus to discuss that offence and a student volunteer will open a file for them. Then, if the offence is of the kind that Student Legal Services can handle, and the client fits the income guidelines of the organization (which aren't published but which match those of Legal Aid) then the matter will proceed from there.

"Generally the cases are things like impaired [driving charges], we do a lot of theft under $5000, simple assault, we handle cases that aren't punishable by imprisonment or any other serious punishment," explains first-year law student and volunteer Scott Matheson. "Legal Aid handles serious offences, but Legal Aid doesn't have the resources to handle things like shoplifting or getting in a small fight."

As Matheson explains, without Student Legal Services, many individuals charged with offences could see their legal troubles increase exponentially.

"At least with the people I've helped, it's been clear that if they didn't get help from Student Legal Services they would have to walk into court self-represented, or maybe they would just skip their court date and the matter would get more severe," he says. "I think a lot of people feel that if they don't have someone there with them they just shouldn't go, so Student Legal Services aims to help those kinds of people, people who would be getting a much worse deal."

There is a safety net for student volunteers in that every case that Student Legal Services takes on is reviewed and helped along by an advising lawyer from one of the city's law firms. Students get to tap into the experience that these lawyers have accumulated over the years as they attempt to help clients, and the advising lawyers help law students navigate the treacherous path of the legal system. In the case of the Criminal Project, the advising law firm is Dawson, Stevens, Duckett and Shaigec.

"Every time we open up a file, any decisions that are made with that file are made by the person who has the charge-we'll go in and we'll talk to the advising lawyer, go over the disclosure-the police report-with them, they'll let us know if there's any try-able issues in the case, what some of the best avenues are for the principal to explore, we'll get the principal to come in, we explain to them what the advising lawyer told us and they direct us what they want us to do," explains Smythe. "If they want us to go to trial then we take it to trial for them, if they're just looking to resolve the matter then we enter into negotiations with the Crown prosecutor's office and try to get them as low a fine or sentence as possible."

Not everything goes according to plan, however, as Matheson found out the first time he defended a client in court.

"I was in court in the first week in October, after starting law school in September. I came into court and I had never been before, and Docket Court is a very strange and funny place if you've never been. I had just learned from my day leader about all of the formality about bowing and how to address the judge and everything, and I was very nervous," he explains. "I realized that I had forgotten to bow as I was leaving the podium, so I turned around really fast to bow and I headbutted [my client] in the face. And there's lawyers there and articling students, the Crown, the clerk and the judge, the bailiff-it was quite the scene."

Apart from some sort of headbutting mishap, however, most volunteers find their experience with Student Legal Services to be beneficial, not only because they have the opportunity to use the skills they're learning to help their fellow citizens, but because volunteering also provides them with much-needed experience that will benefit them when they begin their careers.

"You get a lot of practical experience that if you didn't have then as soon as you go into your article and get thrust into court you wouldn't know what you were doing," explains Smythe. "It's really useful for students in terms of the practical experience because so much stuff that we do in law school is so theoretical and this is stuff that you're actually going to use, tools that you gather along the way that'll really make you attractive to firms and help develop you as a young lawyer."

Being attractive to law firms may be one thing, but all involved agree that the largest benefit of Student Legal Services is the same as it ever was-helping people who have no one else to go to bat for them.

"There's not many other experiences in law school where you get the social aspect and providing a service," says Lam. "I know a lot of people come to law school to get a job that pays but I think a lot of people spend an extra amount of time [working at Student Legal Services]-even maybe sacrificing some of their school work-because you feel good after you get a file put away."

Smythe wholeheartedly agrees.

"The feeling that you get from helping someone who doesn't have anyone else to help them is really rewarding." V

Student Legal Services of Edmonton is located at 11011 - 88 Ave and also has an office at #203, 9924 - 106 St in downtown Edmonton. Student Legal Services can be contacted at 780.492.2226 or through its website at slsedmonton.com.