At West Coast, we know that people in British Columbia care about protecting the places where they live, work and play. And when they have legal questions related to an environmental problem, our team can help find some answers.
Each year, our staff lawyers provide hundreds of hours of legal information and advice to Indigenous peoples, individuals and advocacy groups facing environmental justice and environmental health problems in BC. We want to help people understand their legal options so they can better protect the health of their environment and communities.
Our legal advice program usually consists of a phone call or email to help you understand the law and the legal options you have to address an environmental concern. Sometimes, where it aligns with a current West Coast Environmental Law program or campaign, our lawyers will write a letter or make a telephone call to a government decision-maker.
If you have an environmental concern and need to speak to a lawyer, please contact our Access to Justice team by completing the form here.
If you have any questions about the form, or if you are not able to fill it out online, please give us a call or send us an email.
Email: legalaid@wcel.org
Phone: 604-684-7378 ext. 229
Toll-free in BC: 1-800-330-9235 ext. 229
If you are a experiencing an environmental issue and are not sure if it is something we can assist you with, please feel free to contact our Access to Justice team using the contact information above.
We are available to support your exploration of legal solutions to environmental issues. Sometimes the legal issues involved aren’t obvious – don’t worry about having it ‘all figured out’ before you contact us! We can discuss your situation over the phone and can work with you to understand your goals, explore the legal issues and identify possible legal options to address them.
If our staff determines that an issue requires more than basic legal advice, we may encourage you to apply to our Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund and/or refer you to a private lawyer.
Please note that we are an environmental organization and we will not provide legal advice for matters that, in the opinion of our staff, are contrary to the environmental objectives of West Coast Environmental Law. Any legal advice given by West Coast Environmental Law staff is subject to our legal advice policy.
Top photo: Province of BC
