Law Society’s COVID-19 Response FAQs
For the safety of our staff, our members and the public we serve, we are closing our physical office and library spaces until further notice. Staff are working remotely to continue to offer services to the greatest extent possible.
Please refer to following announcements from the courts:
All residents of Saskatchewan are urged to follow the advice of the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the Government of Saskatchewan. You may contact Sask Health’s HealthLine at 811.
Lawyers’ professional obligations continue to apply. We have developed guidance regarding some of the specific aspects of practice and professional obligation, which we foresee may be affected in the current situation (i.e.: client interaction and the execution of documents). Those guidance topics can be found here. We will continue to update these resources as other issues develop and would encourage you to refer to these resources if you have difficulty managing a particular situation. If lawyers have specific questions about how to comply with their professional obligations or navigate practice management issues in the context of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), they may wish to contact the Law Society at 306-569-8242 or toll free 1-833-733-0133, Monday to Friday 8:00 am – 4:00 pm CST, or send an email to reception@lawsociety.sk.ca. Your email will be forwarded to the appropriate Law Society staff member for response. Any lawyers with upcoming court appearances may wish to contact the courthouse for instructions.
The Law Society is proactively monitoring and responding to the impact of COVID-19. As information becomes available, it will be broadly communicated to the profession. Where possible and appropriate, the Law Society will provide guidance to lawyers as issues arise. Lawyers who have specific questions about their professional obligations or practice management issues, and who are not assisted by the resources already posted, should contact the Law Society with their questions.
Yes, CPD requirements continue to apply. Specifically, all active members are required to complete 12 hours of accredited CPD annually (2 of which must qualify as ethics hours). In order to facilitate a smooth transition from the three-year rolling term to the one-year term, members are allowed to carry over all CPD hours reported in 2018 and 2019 (up to a maximum of 24 CPD hours, 4 of which can be ethics), into 2020. The 12-hour (2 ethics hour) carryover provision will then be triggered for 2021. Refer to the CPD Policy for further information related to CPD requirements.
At this time, the Law Society intends to continue with the delivery of our CPD webinar programs, as all attendees, presenters and staff are able to participate remotely. We have made the decision to postpone all face-to-face seminar programs for the remainder of the spring and will be communicating with presenters and registrants to outline possible next steps for rescheduling these programs in the fall of 2020 or spring of 2021. If you have questions about a specific program, please contact cpd@lawsociety.sk.ca. For the most up-to-date list related to the status of Law Society CPD programs, please refer to our website.
The Law Society is offering a unique solution to continue supporting member competency during the COVID-19 pandemic. After 10 years of hosting various CPD Activities, the CPD Department is piloting a new platform offering all recorded content in one easy place for an affordable price. A lawyer can purchase a one-year subscription to the CPD OnDemand platform for only $349. This COVID-19 pricing has been extended until December 31, 2020. The subscription also includes free registration to any upcoming live webinars and discounts to in-person live seminars throughout the duration of your subscription term!
To subscribe to the platform, visit: CPD on Demand. For further details, please refer to the FAQs.
Lawyers should be actively considering and planning for the continuance of their practice remotely or in isolation. Lawyers should be monitoring directives from SaskHealth and should be prepared to make decisions quickly in the event that information or advice from public health changes.
Lawyers should consider posting information in their offices about COVID-19 and the precautions recommended by SaskHealth and should limit physical contact with clients, other lawyers and members of the public whenever possible.
Review and update your succession plan to ensure that all of the information is as up-to-date as possible and covers long-term, short-term and permanent leaves from practice, including current computer login and password information.
The Law Society has compiled resources to assist lawyers to prepare for practice interruptions. This information can be found here.
The Law Society has developed a resource to guide lawyers with these types of client interactions. It can be found here and will continue to be updated if other questions/issues arise.
Please see the Legal Resources Library main page for a list of resources.
Although the Law Society’s physical office is closed, staff are working remotely as we continue to provide core services. Applications and inquiries will be addressed based on level of urgency, but please expect delays. Until further notice, we are waiving the requirement for originals of documents in most cases; however, Law Society staff maintain the authority to request originals at their discretion. Please submit applications and inquiries related to admissions matters by email to cheryl.eberle@lawsociety.sk.ca. If your matter is not urgent, please consider waiting to submit at a later date.
The Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLED) changed the admission requirements for the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP) for the 2020/2021 year and is maintaining that change for the 2021/2022 year. Students with a Canadian common law degree or Certificate of Qualification from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada may register and complete PREP without secured articles. This change provides students an opportunity to complete their Bar admission course without delay. As well, it offers greater flexibility for firms regarding start dates for their articling students.
For more information on PREP, including COVID-19 related updates, and to register for the course, please visit CPLED.ca.
The Law Society understands that this is a stressful time and that changes resulting from this situation may affect our mental health. Students are eligible to receive, and are encouraged to seek, assistance from Homewood Health. Homewood Health is an employee assistance program funded by the Law Society that offers free and confidential services for issues related to your mental, physical and social wellbeing.
Due to the escalation of COVID 19 and to support of the social distancing measures being implemented in response, many articling students are working remotely.
During this time, we expect that interaction between principals and articling students will be maintained. Interaction may be facilitated by email communications, telephone calls, or video conferencing. Articling students should still be able to contact their principal with any questions they may have. If interaction is maintained in this way, articles can continue.
Principals are encouraged to contact the Law Society at bar.admissions@lawsociety.sk.ca should they have any questions regarding changes to their student’s articles.
Back in the spring of 2020, as a temporary response to the COVID-19 situation, the Law Society reduced the 12-month articling requirement to a minimum of 8 months for those students-at-law who concluded or commenced their articling term in 2020. The reduced term option was later extended to students-at-law commencing articles up to March 31, 2021.
The Law Society will still require articling principals to complete Form A-9 confirming that their articling student is suitable to be admitted as a lawyer, as well as successful completion of the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP). We anticipate that final marks for the June intake of PREP will be available by mid May.
For students currently articled to a court who still have an outstanding secondment that they are unable to complete, the Law Society is accepting requests to waive the second secondment requirement in cases where, due to COVID-19, a secondment (including a remote secondment option) is not available. For more information on this, and to request a waiver of the second secondment requirement, please contact the Law Society at bar.admissions@lawsociety.sk.ca.
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, the Law Society is attempting to implement measures that generate flexibility for firms in an effort to increase articling positions in our province. For this reason, the temporary waiver of Rule 706 to permit the reduction of the articling term from 12 months to a minimum of 8 months is being extended to students-at-law commencing articles up to September 30, 2021.
It is important that firms and students understand that the reduced term option is limited in its application and may cause a timing issue, specifically:
- The reduced term is intended to apply to firms who, due to hardships or constraints resulting from COVID-19 (financial or otherwise), will be unable or unwilling to take on an articling student without the reduced term. The purpose is not to ease the articling requirement burden for students, rather it is to help firms follow through on their commitments to articling students and hopefully create additional articling positions. If a firm is able to fulfill the standard 12-month articling commitment, that is the ideal scenario, and we expect those firms to proceed on that basis. However, for those firms who feel they are unable to proceed with a position for the upcoming articling term as a result of the COVID-19 situation, we are hopeful that the flexibility created by this option will be sufficient to allow them to take on a student.
- An issue that firms and students should be aware of is that the reduced articling term creates the potential for a gap at the end of a student’s 8-month term (referred to as the “gap issue”). As a result of the “gap issue”, in most cases the reduced term does not assist a student in being admitted sooner than the 12-month term because there is a period where the student has completed their articles but is not eligible for admission as a lawyer. This is because the reduced term does not necessarily align with the timing of PREP. If a student commences 8 months of articles in the summer (which is the typical start time), the student will complete their articling term months prior to PREP results being released in mid-May (which is when they become eligible for admission as a lawyer). To maximize the benefit from the reduced articling term (avoid the “gap issue”), a firm that intends to keep a student on after being admitted as a lawyer may want to consider starting the student’s articles as late as September 30, 2021. With the 8-month reduced term, this would result in the student’s articles being complete at the end of May 2022 which aligns closely with PREP results being released and the student being eligible for admission as a lawyer.
To ensure principals/firms fully understand the purpose and practical application of the reduced term, principals who wish to utilize the reduced term option will be required to declare that:
- due to hardships or constraints resulting from COVID-19 (financial or otherwise), they would be unable or unwilling to take on an articling student without the reduced term, and
- they understand that, depending on the articling start date, it may not assist the student in being admitted as a lawyer sooner than the 12-month term.
Effective March 12, 2021, as a temporary pandemic impact measure for students seeking articling positions, the Law Society is lifting the restriction set out in subrule 704(4) to permit members to act as a principal to two students-at-law at the same time. This temporary measure will be available for the duration of the 2021-2022 articling term. Principals interested in taking a second articling student will be asked to provide supporting information on how they plan to appropriately accommodate and supervise two students. For more information, please contact the Law Society at bar.admissions@lawsociety.sk.ca.