What is Coach My Case?

Q: What is legal coaching?

A: Legal coaching is a type of unbundled legal service. Compared to traditional legal services, legal coaching is quite different. Legal coaching involves lawyer or another professional who is in the background of a client's file, providing advice and direction to a person who is self-representing within the legal system. 

Q: Who would benefit from legal coaching services?

A: If you don't have the funds to retain a lawyer to represent you in court, or if legal aid has denied you because you have too much money to pass the requirements, legal coaching can be a great option for you. Legal coaching is where a legal coach professional, usually a lawyer, sometimes a paralegal, will help you in the background of your file so that you can represent yourself in court better. 

Q: What is a self-represented litigant?

A: In the legal system, you can either have somebody represent you, usually a lawyer, or you can represent yourself. If you're representing yourself, it means that you have to go to court, you have to make the representations before the judge, you have to do all of your own filing, and you have to draft on your own documents. 

Q: What is the experience level of legal coaches at Coach My Case? 

A: The legal coaches at Coach My Case are all lawyers, who are also certified as legal coaches through the Legal Coaches Association of Canada. 

Q: What services can a legal coach provide?

A: If you're representing yourself in court, a legal coach can help you with editing your documents, drafting your legal documents, giving you information about how the legal system works, and providing you advice on what the best steps to take would be. A legal coach can also help you get ready for a specific court appearance like an application, a trial, or even a mediation. 

Q: What if I hire a legal coach and later need full representation?

A: Sometimes after hiring a legal coach, you realize that you really need a lawyer to go to court for you - maybe it's because you're out of your depth or maybe you just get too busy and you can't do it yourself anymore. If that happens, it's actually fairly easy to move from having legal coach help you to having full representation by signing a new service agreement with a lawyer who can provide you with a full scope retainer. 

Q: Is legal coaching available online?

A: At Coach My Case, all of the legal coaching we do is remote. So, you don't have to actually go downtown and meet a lawyer in an office. You can get all the information, advice and assistance you need to help you go into court just by remotely connecting with one of our legal coaches anywhere you are.

Q: What is Paralegal Coaching?

A: Paralegal coaching is an alternative legal service designed to empower individuals who are representing themselves in court. At Coach My Case, we like to refer to our paralegals process experts. This is because they're uniquely trained and have experience providing support with a wide range of administrative tasks, like drafting court documents, providing legal information, or explaining court processes and rules.  Where the lawyers can provide the legal advice and strategy for your file, our paralegals are here to help you execute it.

Q: What can a paralegal do versus a legal coach or lawyer?

A: Paralegals are restricted from being able to provide legal advice. Lawyers are specially trained and educated to be able to look at the specific facts of your case and apply those to the law and predict what a judge might do if your case was to go to court. Paralegals do not have that same level of training. In addition, paralegals are not notary publics, so they cannot notarize documents like a lawyer or someone who is trained and qualified as a notary public. 

Q: How do I know if a paralegal is right for me?

A: At Coach My Case, our paralegals are highly trained and experienced so they will be able to tell you, after an initial consultation or throughout the course of your file, if something comes up that necessitates getting legal advice from a legal coach. Ultimately, having an initial consultation with a paralegal coach would be the first step, and they can help you to assess whether you need that additional support.

Q: How do I prepare for my consultation with a legal coach or paralegal?

A: The most important thing to do in advance of any consultation is to come prepared with any questions that you might have. Family law is incredibly stressful and, when you're on the spot, it’s helpful to have a list of some of the important things that you might want to ask in advance of that consultation. It’s also helpful to come prepared with any relevant court documents, agreements, or any correspondence that you might be able to refer to so you can provide more context for your legal situation.

Q: How do I hire a legal coach or paralegal at Coach My Case?

A: To hire a paralegal coach at Coach My Case, you can reach us one of two ways either by phone or visit us online and you can book an appointment with a paralegal coach on our website.

Q: Can I combine legal coaching with traditional legal representation?

A: You can’t combine legal coaching and traditional legal representation. The reason for that is it comes down to a conflict of interest. You share private and confidential information with your lawyer, and that information is privileged. So, having two different people working on your file potentially can compromise that and cause confusion about who's responsible and accountable for any part of your file.

Q: What is the process of working with a paralegal coach?

A: Regardless of whether you work with a paralegal coach or a lawyer legal coach, the process starts with that initial consultation. That free 20-minutes is provided so that you get a chance to figure out whether the legal coach is the right fit for you and your case. From there, if you decide to hire that legal coach, the ball's really in your court to engage them and let them know what services you need when you need them.

Q: Can I work with a paralegal coach and a legal coach at the same time?

A: One of the best parts about working with Coach My Case is that all of our lawyers and paralegals work together. That means that you can hire both a lawyer legal coach and a paralegal coach to support you throughout the file. The lawyer can give you advice, and the paralegal can help you to execute it.

Q: Can a coach come with me to court or any other formal proceeding?

A: The nature of legal coaching is that you remain self-represented. Therefore, the legal coaches cannot attend court mediation or any other formal proceedings with you. But what they can do is help you to prepare, whether it's getting your paperwork together or just explaining what to expect so that when you go in, you can achieve a more successful outcome.

Q: How much does it cost to work with a paralegal coach?

A: Paralegal coaches are able to offer legal services at a fraction of the cost of what you might expect to pay if you're working with a lawyer. At Coach My Case, there's also no expensive upfront retainer. You pay for the services that you need when you need them.