Legal Services Task Team

The Ministry of Justice and the Law Society of Saskatchewan jointly undertook a project to explore the possibility of allowing non-lawyers to provide some legal services. In 2017, the Legal Services Task Team – comprised of lawyers, individuals working in the legal system who are non-lawyers and members of the public – was appointed to examine this issue and develop recommendations for consideration by the Benchers and the Ministry about the appropriate role, if any, of non-lawyers in the provision of legal services. In carrying out its mandate, the Legal Services Task Team considered a wide range of possible approaches and kept the public interest central to its determination.  

To assist the Task Team’s examination, an extensive consultation with legal organizations and other stakeholders within Saskatchewan’s justice system was conducted. The Task Team released a Final Report that includes recommendations on how to improve the regulation and provision of legal services in the province. These recommendations include:  

• modernizing the legislation regulating legal services to provide more flexibility for future developments in this area;  
• creating guidelines to help educate the public about legal services;  
• expanding the list of exemptions to the prohibition against practicing law to recognize existing service providers;   
• providing greater clarity to service providers about what legal services are regulated;  
• providing the Law Society with licensing authority to allow service providers to practice law with a limited licence on a case-by-case basis; and  
• conducting pilot projects to help develop and test the recommendations.  

The Law Society of Saskatchewan accepted these recommendations in 2018 and is taking a measured approach to the implementation of the Task Team recommendations.  

Learn more about implementation of the recommendations in the Final Report of the Legal Services Task Team.