Does BC family court have children's lawyers or social workers?

Hi folks,

I know someone in Abbotsford, BC who is going to family court soon and cannot afford a lawyer.  The person is not internet-savvy and doesn't even have an e-mail account. 

The situation is that the person has been kept from seeing the kids by a very vindictive ex, who is now going to court for full custody.  This person is a good parent, but very bad at red tape, government documents, and has no money for a lawyer whatsoever, so will be going to court alone with no lawyer.  Legal aid won't be processed on time.

I know that in Ontario, we have the Office of the Children's Lawyer, who will assign either a lawyer (if the child is old enough) or a social worker (if the child is too young to decide which parent to live with) for custody and access cases. The court generally takes their recommendation.

I've been trying to find something similar on the BC government websites and am not having much luck - maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places.  Does anyone know whether there is a service like this?  Is this it?

http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/family-justice/bc-system/jsb.htm

It's a pretty awful situation, where the lying, alienating and abusive parent just might get full custody because the other parent can't afford a lawyer and can't navigate the system.  So we're trying to think of what this person can tell the judge, and what kind of third party assessment they can ask for in the first court appearance.

Thanks in advance for any information you can give.

I would start by contacting the local Family Justice Centre in Abbotsford, or possibly the Justice Access Centre in Vancouver which offers a wider range of services.

http://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/helpmap/service/1019

http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/justice-access-centre/vancouver/agencies/index.h...

They will know about all the services she can access.

If the ex is already going to court I guess the non-court mediation services won't be of much help, but in many cases they are good options to consider if neither one *really* wants to go to court.