Many of my clients are funded by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). However, few of them have an accurate idea of how Legal Aid actually works.
For criminal defence matters, Legal Aid help is available only when there is a possibility of imprisonment. For civil matters, LAO funding is generally limited to administrative law appeals, family law issues where children’s custody or paternal access is in dispute, or residential housing issues where one’s tenancy is in jeopardy. LAO assistance may also be available for refugee and immigration claims.
Since I don’t deal with immigration, refugees, or criminal matters, I’ll focus today’s blog on LAO-assisted civil proceedings.
Typically, once you’re approved for LAO eligibility, you’ll be issued a certificate for an opinion letter regarding to the merits of your case. At this stage, the lawyer of your choice is only allowed to investigate your case and write a reporting letter to LAO.
Hence, if you go to see a lawyer with an opinion letter certificate, and your case is due in court the next day, the lawyer will likely be unable to assist you in any substantive way. (This happens more often than you’d think.) Rather, the lawyer may only send the court a letter indicating that he or she has not been authorized by LAO to represent you. Depending on the circumstances, the court may or may not allow an adjournment.
After the opinion letter has been delivered to LAO, the staff lawyer or the area director will evaluate your case and decide whether to grant additional authorization for the lawyer to proceed to represent you. This may take several business days.
The lawyer will only be allowed to take on your case fully when he or she receives the additional authorization.
Keep in mind that LAO certificates are matter-specific. In other words, the certificate is only valid for the matter described within. Once the matter has been concluded, you’ll need to get a new certificate for any other legal service you may require, such as an appeal.
