I can't afford to be a lawyer, but I like studying the law anyway. What books and resources would you recommend for me?

[Little Miss Canadia]

Hello. This is my first post here. I hope I posted in the right forum. I apologise if I have not.

I really like studying the law and listening to different geopolitical, economic and legal podcasts (boy is Opening Arguments a great podcast!).

So I'm in my twenties and a few years ago I managed to get accepted into several UK law schools. My plan was to study there first, then study in Canada and eventually also practice in Canada. However, I decided against studying because I was too economically and legally disadvantaged. To briefly summarise my reality at the time, I raised by a single mother who was both mentally and physically disabled, which meant that I lived well bellow the poverty line. I lived on 3 continents and through some miracle, my mother was still able to immigrate us here when I was 7. Nevertheless, her ailments got the worst of her. I have lived in over 50 homes and have been in foster care multiple times as well. Mother tried, but she never quite made our legal paperwork in order for us to get from PR to Citizenship. When I met my fiancé, our relationship deteriorated (she hated me so much and was physically and verbally abusive) and she eventually got deported to her home nation after I moved to Belgium to marry my now husband. After a few years, I moved back to Canada with him through the kindness of his company giving us an all-paid-for international transfer to BC, but I needed to give up my old PR status and start anew with a work visa. All good, we had some very helpful lawyers who took care of us really well every step of the way. About to move to Quebec or Alberta (BC is too pricey).

Anyway, I'm sorry to have rambled on a bit, what I am getting to is that I still think about law very much and I would like to study it for fun even if I can't be a lawyer. I was hoping you could recommend some better books and resources and legal databases. I would like to be able to do legal analysis one day and my areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

 

• INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

• CONTRACT — including government

• ENTERTAINMENT LAW

• HUMAN RIGHTS, IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM 

• LITIGATION

• POLICY MAKING

• CRIMINAL LAW

• PRESS FREEDOMS — edited my post to add this one > __ <

 

Probably more, but I'll stop there... Ideally I would like free resources, but I am open to purchasing things a bit as well. 🙂

 

Maybe I can manage to afford studying towards becoming a lawyer in the future someday, but for now I at least want to try actively studying it on my own more intensively outside of just consuming it through the news cycle.

 

So very sorry for the long post.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Little Miss Canadia

[criminallyminded]

Thank you for sharing. If you do end up moving to Quebec, after ~6 month you qualify for in province tuition. This means that going to McGill or other schools in the province amount to about $2400 a semester. Given that background you have, you would likely qualify for needs-based scholarship. 

 

All that to say, if you still want to go study law. Consider Quebec for affordability and top rate education. Plus, Montreal is cool and cheaper than most other big metropolitan areas. 

[Lilbb19]

Sounds like a lot of woe is my attitude and killing your dreams cause youve been through some hard times. Dont let your past hold you back/continue to burden you; craft your own future  Go after whatever you want. I got bursaries just for being poor that covered all my tuition and more- I essentially got paid to go to law school. 

Edited September 27, 2022 by Lilbb19

[Renerik]

2 hours ago, Little Miss Canadia said:

I at least want to try actively studying it on my own more intensively outside of just consuming it through the news cycle.

Much like every other admitted student trying to get a leg up. It's difficult to learn substantive law outside of school. 

A few schools offer low or free tuition to those who have been in the Canadian foster system. If this applies to you, I'd look into it.

My condolences for your past. 

[myth000]

Outlines are basically what we study at law school around exam time (https://robsonmlsa.ca/outline-bank/).    There might be some study materials for the Ontario Bar Exam floating around that can also be a good summary of various areas of law.  The difficult part is actually taking the exams which are more difficult than they look, the difference between an A and a B often being a mystery. (https://law.library.ubc.ca/exams/).  

But as the previous poster noted, with bursaries it's possible to actually just be paid to go to law school.  And government student loans are only repayable if your family income is above a certain threshold so might be best to first consider actually just going to law school.

[epeeist]

@Little Miss Canadia

I'm taking you at your word you're interested in general knowledge not specific advice!

The Irwin Law books on various legal subjects are pretty good as I recall, much less expensive and more accessible (from my perspective as a lawyer at least!) than many others. But they're on specific subjects. If you were looking for a more general book about law, my high school law text was pretty good but it was so long ago I can't remember the name...

Waddams "Introduction to the Study of Law" I've never read but have seen it recommended to new law students, but that's not you, you're looking as I understand it more for a summary.

Not intended for the general public, but rightly (in my view) made available online, some provinces like BC make their bar admission materials - materials intended for all articling students preparing to write the bar exam - publicly accessible for download on their website. Though of course those provinces that do are oriented towards that province and are intended for someone with a legal background.

 

[Whist]

Before I answer your actual question - you're tagged as a law student, so if you continue participating on the forums I'd change that or any further commentary you give might be misconstrued. 

I don't have any suggestions on books, but there are other ways to learn. CanLII is a free to access database of Canadian case law. They also have a "commentary" section for articles, books, and journals, which I would suggest for you rather than just randomly browsing case law. Many other databases you need a subscription to. Slaw.ca and lawblogs.ca are websites that host or link you to legal blogs in various subject areas - these blogs often talk about recent cases and what the practical implications are. There are plenty of legal podcasts too! 

As others have added, based on your background in foster care and your financial situation, you may be eligible for substantial bursaries once you meet residency requirements, whether from the school directly or from student loan issuers. I qualified based on my financial background for enough bursaries that my tuition has been covered so far. Once you settle in QC or AB, you can reach out to local schools and ask them what their supports might be.

[KOMODO]

This question is kind of similar to someone saying that they want to be a doctor but can't go to medical school right now, so they'd like to just learn a bit of medical stuff from free online resources in the meantime. And sure, you can do that, you can even order a stitching kit and pretend to do surgery, but nothing you teach yourself is really going to be that useful. If someone in your life needs medical advice, they're going to need a doctor, and to really understand the law, you're going to need a lawyer.

So, what to do? If you're just interested in the idea of being a lawyer and need somewhere to vent that excitement or desire, there are lots of intentionally entertaining books and movies that you can engage with to fill that urge. Basically anyone applying to law school feels this way at some point and I think we even have a thread recommending law-related entertainment for them (oneL, the paper chase, even stuff that borders on law student advice like swimming lessons for baby sharks, etc.). I would submit that reading actual legal resources in the absence of any context will be supremely boring and useless. Just my two cents.

If you are looking for more than entertainment, which I think you are based on your statement that you hope to study to be a lawyer someday, then you need to identify the barriers to your admission to a Canadian law school. It sounds like you may not have adequate grades or test scores to be admitted and take advantage of the financial bursaries that are noted above. If this is the case, consider applying in access categories, or consider whether it makes sense to take a second degree program or retake the LSAT. Ultimately it seems more likely that it's an issue of credentials rather than funds (though of course, the gaps in your credentials may be related to your personal challenges, which is exactly what access categories try to address). Or maybe you mean that you can't afford to take a second degree program, though there are similar financial bursaries for undergraduate programs if you want to do that.

Good luck in whatever you choose!

[Naj]

"An Introduction to Canadian Criminal Procedure and Evidence"

Can't seem to find the book at the moment and I'm not able to confirm that this is the exact book by googling, but I am fairly sure it is. Currently applying to law schools, but I was reading this during my final undergrad year, it was relatively easy and enjoyable to read.