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Advocates for Injured Workers
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"My experience at Advocates for Injured Workers has been entirely positive. In my first year at law school, I volunteered in a large clinic, where student contact with lawyers was minimal. After joining AIW in my second year, I was impressed with the close working relationship between the students and the supervising lawyer, Jo-Ann Seamon. I was pleased to receive files on my first shift, and begin hands-on training. At times, the file work was challenging; however, the guidance of our shift leaders and Jo-Ann proved most helpful. I look forward to returning to the clinic - and my files - in September."
Cathleen O'Sullivan,
second year law student
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Advocates for Injured Workers (AIW) is a unique student clinic dedicated to providing high quality legal services to injured workers. AIW is an exciting way for U of T students to "cut their teeth" in litigation and an excellent opportunity for them to enhance their legal education by working with administrative law hands on.
The student clinic operates as a satellite of the Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario, an expert clinic with a long tradition of advocacy for injured workers which specializes in workers’ compensation matters, including casework, community development, law reform and test case litigation. Clients come from many neighborhoods in and around Toronto and from a wide variety of occupational and ethnic backgrounds.
Students working at the clinic are supervised by a staff lawyer from the Industrial Accidents Victims Group of Ontario, but have full responsibility for files including the preparation and presentation of appeals before the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Tribunal. Students have the opportunity to handle a variety of casework, to engage in medico-legal research, and to represent injured workers at all levels of appeal. Cases include Workplace Safety and Insurance claims, and related Canada Pension Plan, human rights and civil matters.
First year students can volunteer at the clinic, and upper year students can enroll in the Clinic for Credit programme for academic credit. The clinic holds training seminars specifically geared for newcomers as well as social events to celebrate our work together. Some students opt to continue their commitment year round, in the form of summer employment and extra academic credit.
For more information, visit the AIW website at: http://www.utoronto.ca/aiw
Contact Information
489 College Street, Suite 203
Toronto, ON, M6G 1A5
Phone: (416) 924-4385
Fax: (416) 924-2472
AIW staff, Summer 2007: (from left to right) Christine Davies, Yusra Murad, Mabel Lai, Seemal Patel, Jo-Ann Seamon (staff lawyer), Evan Schiller, Viktoria Prokhorova.
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