Changing the face of public legal education and information

Clicklaw is a public website that aims to be a unified point of access on the Internet to diverse sources of legal information, education and help in British Columbia.

The project is sponsored by the PLEI Network, is funded by the Law Foundation of BC, and is being led by the BC Courthouse Library. Clicklaw launched during Law Week 2009. The public unveiling was on April 20, 2009 was organized by the Canadian Bar Association, Law Week is a national event held annually in April celebrating the signing of Canada’s Charter of Rights & Freedoms. 24 different organizations participate in Clicklaw, as content providers and contributors. The site launched with a Beta and continued to evolve with additional resources and features to be added, including a Google Maps-powered map of legal services in the province.

The goal of the website was to reduce the barrier to finding legal information and aid. With so many resources available and scattered across different websites, ClickLaw is a portal where content can be found, and can drive users to the contributor websites. During usability testing, participants validated the importance of this concept for both people providing legal aid, as well as members of the general public. Whether it be finding information on how to write a will, to the complex subjects of child custody, Clicklaw houses all of the content in one location.

OpenRoad led the design and development of Clicklaw, partnering with Karo Design Group for brand and visual design services. The site followed an innovative user-centred design process, which utilized highly participatory design activities for the Public Legal Education and Information (PLEI) network members, as well as an agile development process.

The results….