Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 04/00) - An Alberta legal firm with ties to the North is looking to take a bit of a bite -- or should we say byte -- into what they believe is untapped business.

Sherwood Park, Alta.-based law firm Ahlstrom Wright Oliver and Cooper has launched a legal service Web site.

"We've structured the site to reflect how we do business," said Steven Cooper, a partner with the firm. Cooper's firm has acted in several actions in the North. Cooper represented the Yellowknife property owners association in the fight over secret meetings at City Hall. Property owners won the case.

"We're not aware of any other system like this," he adds.

Clients log on and simply ask for legal advice. If it's a simple inquiry to which legal advice is provided, a lawyer will e-mail the answer for a $50 fee.

"I'm hoping it will make people less intimidated about asking that first question," Cooper said.

"There are many legal questions which go unasked and can lead to far more expensive legal bills," he said.

There will be times when lawyers will advise no action. There's no charge for that response.

Other times they will advise the Internet caller to talk to a lawyer, for which there is no charge.

Whatever the response, the firm, which began working on the site a year ago, says it will e-mail an answer within 48 hours.

The firm has linked its lawyer.opinion Web site to the firm's Web page.

"One of the things we make clear, is, this isn't for everybody," he adds. "A good part of the population of the NWT and Nunavut doesn't have ready access to a lawyer.

"You can't just drive to a law firm," he said. "We have experience with distance legal advice and we think there is a large group of people in the North who need access."

Cooper could not go into big detail about how the Web site was set up -- that's proprietary.

But he did say one of the biggest technical challenges with the site was making sure the firm is not acting for both parties. For example, if someone e-mails an inquiry on what they believe is a wrongful dismissal, the firm has to make sure it is not acting for that person's employer.

"Technically, the most difficulty was separating information and automating our ability to accept or reject (an inquiry)," he said.

On security, Cooper said the system is "considered defence-level."