A week’s worth of relocation errands has sapped my energy a lot more than I could have expected. Some of these have involved a government agency and waiting in line, something that I would not have enjoyed one bit four years ago. But now that I’ve gone through law school, and especially now that I’m in another country, and especially especially now that I’ve had my curiousity about the public’s understanding of law blessed with federal funding, these kind of errands are fascinating.

That’s because, for one thing, I don’t know much at all about the details of Canadian law. So, I’m not only here to learn about how certain Canadian organizations educate the people about law and government, but also to see how effective Canadian public legal education (PLE) is by trying to educate my own damn self with it. And probably the largest provider of PLE, both in the U.S. and Canada (if not everywhere), is the government. In some cases, a government will take it upon itself to educate its public about its law (here are a U.S. example and a Canadian example). In other cases, the government does not really have an alternative; for instance, the U.S. government has no choice but to give the public at least basic information about filing their taxes.

Like, the other day. I had to get a Canadian Social Insurance Number. Notably, although I need one of these to do the research I’m doing here, nobody from Canada Border Services or Citizenship and Immigration Canada told me this when I entered Canada and successfully applied for a work permit. I knew to get one, though, because the Canadian Fulbright folks told me about it. How did they know, though? Or, more importantly, how would a new Canadian small business owner know that his foreign hires needed to get a SIN? In both cases, the answer is probably that it’s on a required tax form. But… but how would they know that that form is required? Because of either (1) direct legal consultation (paid or unpaid, authorized or unauthorized) or (2) effective public legal education.

Now, figuring out that your workers need a SIN (or a Social Security Number in the U.S.) may not be hard. But there are oodles of other requirements that a small business has to see to that are not so obvious. Without adequate, understandable legal information on these requirements, prospective entrepreneurs and small business owners must be able to obtain personalized legal advice. Yet, even if a businessperson can afford a lawyer or find free legal services, this kind of basic information will often not require personalized consultation. So we waste our limited legal services resources. Right?