We at CPLEA built this site to uncomplicate the law for Albertans.
We designed this site to be a go-to resource for law in Alberta. We hope it is a safe space for you to learn about the law, understand your situation and figure out what to do next.
About This Site
We designed this site to be a go-to resource for law in Alberta. We hope it is a safe space for you to learn about the law, understand your situation and figure out what to do next.
LawCentral Alberta is a portal or collection of links to law-related information and educational resources on justice and legal issues of interest to Albertans. Our purpose is to create an educated public who understands their rights and responsibilities under the law, and who knows where to go for legal help and referral.
LawCentral Alberta is geared towards the general public and for those who work with the public. All of the links to information and organizations are chosen and evaluated by librarians, and abstracts contain information pulled directly (where available) from the organizations’ own websites.
LawCentral Alberta is a program of the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA). It is supported by funding from the Alberta Law Foundation.
For more information or to suggest a resource to include in our collection, please Contact CPLEA.
About the Program
About the Program
Justice navigators play an important role in helping Albertans access the justice system by spotting legal issues, sharing relevant legal information and referring for more legal support. CPLEA developed the Legal Foundations for Justice Navigators program to equip justice navigators with legal information and education to support this work.
Who this program is for
CPLEA’s Legal Foundations for Justice Navigators program is for justice navigators! So, who is a justice navigator?
At CPLEA, we define a justice navigator as any non-lawyer professional who supports Albertans dealing with legal issues. Your job title may not be “justice navigator”. In fact, it probably isn’t! You may be a social worker, librarian, settlement worker, teacher, court worker, among many other jobs. Helping Albertans with legal issues may be a small part of your job or the whole purpose of your job. Learn more about justice navigators in our article on LawNow – CPLEA’s legal blog for non-lawyers. We want to emphasize that not all justice navigators are the same. The term “justice navigator” is becoming more widely used by many different organizations to describe many different roles. A justice navigator at one organization may have a completely different role than a justice navigator at another organization.
Program learning objectives
Though the work of justice navigators varies across sectors and between agencies, we’ve identified five core competencies. We believe all justice navigators should understand the following:
- The difference between legal information and legal advice
- How Canada’s legal system works, including sources of law, levels of court and the role of administrative tribunals
- Common everyday legal issues and the laws that apply to those issues
- Best practices for referring clients for more help
- Options for getting legal help in Alberta
Individual agencies may have more specific core competencies for their justice navigators.
CPLEA’s Legal Foundations for Justice Navigators program equips participants to meet these core competencies through six program-wide learning outcomes. After completing the program, participants will be able to:
- Describe and apply the difference between legal information and legal advice
- Describe everyday common legal issues and provide basic legal information about those issues
- Identify when their client has a legal issue
- Effectively advocate for their client
- Identify options for resolving common legal issues
- Know when and where to send their client for more legal help
Program structure
CPLEA’s Legal Foundations for Justice Navigators currently consists of 12 online, self-directed learning modules. Each module takes between 45 and 90 minutes to complete.
While we intend for participants to complete all 12 modules, participants can complete whichever modules they choose. Participants receive a completion certificate for each module they successfully complete.
There are three foundational modules about the legal system that we suggest all justice navigators complete
- Legal Info vs. Legal Advice
- Advocate for Your Client
- Canadian Legal System
The remaining modules cover the following substantive areas of law:
- Abuse and Protection
- Capacity & Decision-making
- Civil Law
- Consumer & Debt Law
- Criminal Law
- Employment Law
- Family Law
- Immigration Law
- Tenancy Law
CPLEA envisions a Part II to this project – communities of practice. We know many justice navigators possess extensive knowledge and experience. We aim to create a safe and productive space for peer-led sharing as well as opportunities for learning about specialized topics. This portion may consist of webinars and an online forum.
We hope to launch communities of practice in 2027.
Our process
We created the program in response to feedback from justice navigators across the province about a learning gap.
We wanted to create this program for justice navigators with the help of justice navigators. That is why we took the following steps to create each module in the program:
- Consult with a community agency to identify learning needs about the topic
- Draft the module content
- Share the draft module content with the same community agency for their review and comment
- Update the draft content accordingly
- Send the draft content to a legal professional to review for legal accuracy
- Update the draft content accordingly
- Invite a potential user to complete the draft module and provide feedback on user experience and content, as well as suggest improvements
- Update the draft module accordingly and publish
We are very grateful to all our agency partners, legal reviewers and user testers for their support, efforts and feedback.
Measuring impact
We want this program to meet the learning needs of justice navigators across the province. At the end of each module, we invite you to complete a survey about your experience with the module. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and share your thoughts with us!
FAQs
Below are answers to common questions we receive about the program.
The program is free! We are grateful to our generous funders for their support of this program.
No! Anyone who is interested in completing one or more modules may register in the program.
We require participants to create an account before enrolling in any modules. We do this so we can provide a certificate of completion for each module you complete.
We recommend you start with the module on our Canadian Legal System. Then complete the Advocate for Your Client module to understand your role as a justice navigator and the Legal Info vs. Advice module to explore the very important distinction between legal information and legal advice. These three modules provide a foundation to help you better understand the remaining modules, which dive into a variety of legal topics and may be completed in any order.
No! You can start a module and come back to finish it later.
You will receive a certificate of completion for each module you successfully complete. We do not provide a certificate of completion for the program if you complete all 12 modules.
We invite you to fill out our contact form. Someone from our team will follow up with you!