Calgary Legal Guidance

This place is GREAT! I’m dealing with a complex situation involving a creditor and collection agency basically trying to screw me over, and am far from being able to afford a regular lawyer, so I called up CLG. Despite the fact that I called at 5:00, they were able to fit me in by 7:40 the same evening (WOW!) Once I arrived I was asked to fill out a short form (most of which had already been prepared by the woman I spoke to on the phone with all the information she had asked (a nice surprise as it cut the time it took to fill out in less than half).
By the time I filled out the form I hardly even had a minute to peruse the giant fall of VERY informative brochures they have on everything from creating roommate agreements to dealing with traffic tickets, and any number of useful bits of information. I grabbed two that looked interesting, went to sit down to read them, and just started to open the first one, and I was already being called in (where else do you spend that little time in the waiting room?)
I was seen by a lovely young lady who was very friendly and understanding of my problems. She admitted right off the bet that debt and collections are not her specialty (but come on, from a place that gives free legal advice, obviously you’re not getting a specialist in the field). However, what she DID do was give me a phone list with the numbers of two free lawyer-​by-​phone services, one of which specializes in this field and one of which has various lawyers in various disciplines on call at all times to answer questions. She also included a number for a government operated credit counseling service that she said would have information on good ways to start rebuilding my credit rating after this whole ordeal. Furthermore, I was given the names of two government documents to look up that related to my problem, to give me some more information on how to proceed (apparently their internet wasn’t working that evening, so she couldn’t pull them up herself).
All things considered, given the limitations (no internet, no actual specializing personel on site) I got a wealth of useful information in a matter of minutes, and all FOR FREE… how often does that happen?
Now, I should mention that this service is limited to people in what they consider a low income bracket. They won’t disclose what the cut off is, but when you call they will ask you a few questions about your income, marital status, number of dependants, etc. and if you qualify they’ll book you in for an apointment. If you have a legal issue you don’t know what to do about, and can’t afford a lawyer, I can’t recommend this service enough.
(On a side note, they also offer regular free legal clinics. I’ve never been to one so I can’t speak to their usefulness, but it may be worth checking out.)