Estate Planning Legal Health Program

To volunteer, please use this sign up form, or send an email to [email protected]

The pdf Estate Planning Legal Health (EPLH) program(5.13 MB)  is a Medical-Legal Partnership project between the Nova Scotia Health Authority and the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia.  You can find general information about medical-legal partnerships here.

The EPLH offers free estate planning legal help to eligible patients with a life-limiting illness who are receiving palliative care through the QEII.

The EPLH program offers eligible patients:

• free legal information, resources, and referrals on estate planning issues 
• free summary advice from a lawyer who does estate planning work
• free preparation of one or more of a Will, Power of Attorney and Personal Directive (based on patient-client need).

Lawyer volunteers may choose to offer further legal services, at their own discretion, at a cost agreed on between the client and the lawyer. 

Legal information services and referrals are provided by staff and trained law student volunteers at the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia.  Legal advice services are provided by volunteer lawyers.

View the pdf NSHA Patient Information brochure(5.13 MB) .

 Patients must meet the following criteria to qualify for legal help:

• have a life-limiting illness and be receiving palliative care through the QEII
• need legal advice/services about:
  • Powers of Attorney
  • Making a Will
  • Personal Directive
• have a combined family gross income of less than $65,000 per year for the current or immediate preceding tax year, and not own real property.

As a volunteer lawyer you commit to:

• provide up to 30 minutes of free summary legal advice regarding estate planning to a qualifying patient. 
• prepare a free will and/or free enduring power of attorney and/or free personal directive for a qualifying patient-client referred to you.

Lawyer volunteers may choose to offer further legal services to a qualifying patient-client. The cost of any further legal work you may choose to provide is just between you and the client.

The EPLH program started in December 2018.  To date volunteer lawyers have helped 60 patient-clients as part of this program.

As a volunteer lawyer we anticipate that you may get 4 to 5 referrals a year, although the number of referrals will ebb and flow.

We rotate referrals through a small roster of volunteer lawyers.

Referrals are generally time-sensitive.  In most cases the pro bono work must be completed within a matter of weeks, and in some cases days.  If you get a time-sensitive referral and are not able to respond within a reasonable time (we understand you are busy!) please let us know right away and we will try to send the referral to another volunteer lawyer.

In delivering pro bono legal services, you commit to follow the same standards of dedication, excellence and professional ethics as paid legal services.

• Nova Scotia Health Authority - Social Work staff identify patients who may be eligible, gather basic contact information and required consent to share information, and refer to Legal Info Nova Scotia
• Legal Info Nova Scotia staff or law student volunteers:
  • confirm patient-client eligibility
  • determine general legal needs
  • provide legal information as appropriate
  • contact an available volunteer lawyer, help coordinate lawyer-client meeting(s) if needed
  • with lawyer's permission and only as requested, law students may help with document drafting
  • with permission of lawyer and client, law students may attend lawyer-client meeting(s) and are available to act as witnesses for document execution.

Lawyer-client meetings will be at a location that meets client needs, which may be in the community, such as at the client's home, in the lawyer's office, or in hospital, such as at the QEII – Victoria General Building, 1276 South Park Street, Halifax or hospice.  Note: if public health restrictions are in place we encourage appointments at lawyers' offices whenever possible, instead of meeting at the patient-client's home, as law firms are better able to follow physical distancing and public health restrictions for in-person meetings.

Volunteer lawyers must be practising, licensed members of the Nova Scotia Bar in current good standing, practice wills & estates - ideally as a practice focus, and be prepared meet the commitments outlined above as well as statutory and regulatory obligations for lawyers and the professional standards for the practice of wills, powers of attorney and personal directives. 

If you would like to help but do not feel you are in a position to offer pro bono services, but are able to offer wills and estates services on a sliding scale fee basis, please consider joining Legal Info Nova Scotia's Lawyer Referral Service, if you are not already a member.

We also need lawyers who would, from time-to-time, be willing to review our legal information content dealing with estate planning topics, including wills, Powers of Attorney, Health Care Treatment and Consent, Adult Capacity and Decision-making, and more.  Please get in touch if you are interested in volunteering to review content.  In some cases (depending on our funding situation) we may be able to pay lawyers to review content.

LISNS pro bono Objectives

• To help Nova Scotians find pro bono services for their legal problem
• To create various ways for Nova Scotians to gain access to legal pro bono services
• To partner with organizations already providing pro bono legal services throughout Nova Scotia
• To educate the Nova Scotia legal community about pro bono opportunities and their benefits
• To engage and provide opportunities for the legal community in Nova Scotia to participate in delivering pro bono services
• To raise general public awareness about pro bono legal services

LISNS pro bono Principles

1.  Providing pro bono legal services is part of the tradition of the Nova Scotia Bar, where the profession has demonstrated its ethical and moral responsibility to assist citizens in attaining access to justice

2.  Pro bono legal services are provided to people and non-profit organizations of limited means without expectation of a fee.

3.  Pro bono legal services should be designed and provided according to the changing social and legal needs of the people and non-profit organizations of limited means for whom they are intended

4.  Pro bono legal services should be provided according to the same standards of dedication, excellence, and professional ethics as paid services.

5.  Pro bono legal services should serve to complement and not replace government-funded programs advancing access to justice; such as Nova Scotia Legal Aid. A collaborative pro bono system should not be a substitute for a properly funded legal aid system.

If you have questions about the Estate Planning Legal Health program and about volunteering, please contact:

Estate Planning Legal Health Program
Email: [email protected]