Find a lawyer
VISOA can provide information and support. However, there are times when it’s important to get advice from a legal professional. Here are some resources to help you find a lawyer.
- VISOA: Business Directory
- Access Pro Bono: Lawyer Referral Service
- Canadian Bar Association of BC: Find a Lawyer
- Law Society of BC: Lawyer Directory
- Affordable services: Everyone Legal Clinic
Legal blogs, websites, and more
We hope you are finding useful information in VISOA’s resource centre. If you’re interested in exploring other sites, here are some suggestions.
- Province of BC: Strata housing website (Subscribe for updates)
- Cleveland Doan LLP: Strata law blog
- Lesperance Mendes: Strata alert blog
- Courthouse Libraries of BC: Clicklaw
- Peoples Law School: Dial-A-Law
- Stratasphere: A Practical Guide to Bylaws (book)
Courts, tribunals, and regulators
Visit the following websites to learn how to make a claim in a court or tribunal.
- The Civil Resolution Tribunal has jurisdiction to resolve or decide many strata claims in BC.
- Certain strata claims must be filed at the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
- Complaints under the Human Rights Code are made at the BC Human Rights Tribunal.
- Make a complaint to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC (OIPC) about a breach of privacy.
- Report a concern about a strata manager at the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA).
Court and tribunal decisions
You can learn a lot about a issue by reading decisions involving strata corporations and strata owners in similar circumstances to your own. Strata owners and council members can learn about the legal basis for a claim and what evidence you may need to prove or disprove a claim.
The Canadian Legal Information Institute’s CanLII.org website provides access to court judgments from all Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, federal courts, and the courts in all Canada’s provinces and territories. CanLII.org also contains decisions from many federal and provincial administrative tribunals. You can find decisions of the:
- Provincial Court of British Columbia (BCPC)
- Supreme Court of British Columbia (BCSC)
- Court of Appeal for British Columbia (BCCA)
- Civil Resolution Tribunal (BCCRT)
- BC Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT)
- Information and Privacy Commissioner (BCIPC)
- Superintendent of Real Estate (BCSRE)
- and more
If you only want to search CRT decisions go to the Civil Resolution Tribunal decisions web page. You can also subscribe to the CRT mailing list to receive a list of new CRT decisions every weekday. The CRT does not have access to the list of subscribers. The mailing list is managed by Lexum which is owned by CanLII.
Member-only Resources
Log in to your account to access member-only resources.
- Coming soon: Before you talk to a lawyer worksheet
- Coming soon: CRT claim worksheet
- Coming soon: Evidence worksheet
