PLEA gratefully acknowledges our primary core funder the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan for their continuing and generous support of our organization.
Lawyers help people with a number of legal matters, not just legal disputes. In fact, seeking legal advice before a matter becomes a dispute may help you avoid a dispute altogether.
Lawyers can help ensure that your interests are protected when buying or selling a home or business, making a will or dealing with an estate, negotiating a contract, or experiencing separation or divorce. They can
also help protect your rights if you are dealing with the police.
Lawyers will look at your situation and tell you about the law that applies to your case. They may outline a number of different options for you. They can advise you about the risks and benefits of each. They can negotiate with another party to try to find a way to resolve an issue. For example, they may try to have criminal charges dropped or have the case dealt with outside of court. In family law cases, they may help the parties reach an agreement so that they do not need to go to court.
When lawyers do go to court for their clients, they are there to protect the interests of their client. They will present evidence to court and question the evidence and witnesses for the other side. They will summarize the case for the judge and make arguments for their side.
A lawyer’s duty to a client who seeks legal advice is to give the client a competent opinion based on a sufficient knowledge of the relevant facts, an adequate consideration of the applicable law and the lawyer’s own experience and expertise.
The advice must be open and undisguised and must clearly disclose what the lawyer honestly thinks about the merits and probable results.
— Law Society of Saskatchewan, Annotated Code of Professional Conduct.
A lawyer must advise and encourage a client to compromise or settle a dispute whenever it is possible to do so on a reasonable basis and must discourage the client from commencing or continuing useless legal proceedings.
PLEA offers free online training on preventing and addressing workplace harassment.