Legal Aid Ontario

Legal Aid Ontario Launches (Free) Family Law Information Program

Posted in: "All, Family Law, In the News, Legal Aid Ontario, Product Review by Pei Wang | No Comments Friday, March 11, 2011

In their effort to promote greater access to justice in family law, Legal Aid Ontario recently launched the Family Law Information Program (FLIP), accessible online free of charge for individuals with family law issues.

The program provides easy-to-understand, jargon-free information on family law matters, utilizing audio and text. It is designed as an online tutorial on family law, with 63 sections ranging in subject from “What is custody?” to “How to find legal representation.” Users can either follow the tracks or jump to a topic of their interest.

The program, while available on the World Wide Web, is only valid for the Province of Ontario and does not offer legal advice.

After browsing through the site, I am impressed with the quality of the contents. They are comprehensive and yet easy to understand. Almost all major topics are covered, in a way that is applicable to common scenarios. In other words, the program provides general knowledge of family law and court proceedings that is suitable for most people facing family law issues.

My personal favourite topic is “What not to expect from the court.” Accordingly, you should expect neither an immediate appearance in court nor an immediate decision by the judge. The family law process in Ontario encourages negotiation between the parties, with judges available to assist the parties at conferences. If the parties cannot reach an agreement, the judge may decide for the parties as a last resort. However, the litigation is lengthy and the litigants must follow court procedures carefully.

The audio guide provides more information than the texts. It sets itself apart from general information sites and bloggers, who generally rely heavily on texts, which can be daunting for some.

That being said, the program is not, and is not intended to be, a substitute for legal advice. Individuals seeking answers to their specific situation must contact a lawyer for independent legal advice.

Legal Aid Ontario Reduces Coverage on Civil Matters

Posted in: "All, Administrative Law, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | No Comments Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Legal Aid Ontario is in the process of implementing structural changes. Recently it has reduced certificate coverage on civil litigation matters.

Cases that are no longer covered by Legal Aid certificates include but are not limited to the following:

  • wrongful dismissal matters
  • civil fraud
  • mortgage or real estate actions
  • personal injury matters
  • medical malpractice matters
  • defamation claims against lawyers
  • claims against Legal Aid Ontario

Notably, this change doesn’t affect administrative law matters, including Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) appeals before the Social Benefits Tribunal and tenant applications before the Landlord and Tenant Board.

For more information, please contact Legal Aid Ontario directly at 1-800-668-8258 toll-free (or 416-979-1446 in Toronto) to get legal aid help in over 120 languages.

PSWLaw gladly accepts Legal Aid Ontario certificates on family law and administrative law matters.

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A Raise! Legal Aid Ontario Implements Tariff Increase

Posted in: "All, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | No Comments Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Legal Aid Ontario is finally in the process of implementing the Memorandum of Understanding with the Criminal Lawyers Association and the Ministry of the Attorney General that was agreed upon in January.

The rate increase applies to certificates issued between February 1 and March 31, 2010, for which the Year 1 rate applies. For certificates issued on or after April 1, 2010, the Year 2 rate applies because Legal Aid Ontario’s fiscal year ends on March 31.

The revised tariff rates are as follows:

Effective 1-Feb-10 Year 1 1-Apr-10 Year 2 1-Apr-11 Year 3 1-Apr-12 Year 4 1-Apr-13 Year 5 1-Apr-14 Year 6 1-Apr-15 Year 7
Lawyer Rate Tier 1 $81.44 $85.51 $89.79 $94.27 $98.99 $103.94 $109.13
Lawyer Rate Tier 2 $91.62 $96.20 $101.01 $106.07 $111.37 $116.94 $122.78
Lawyer Rate Tier 3 $101.81 $106.90 $112.24 $117.86 $123.75 $129.94 $136.43
Complex Criminal Case Rate $120.02 $124.82 $129.81 $135.00 $141.75 $148.84 $161.05
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Legal Aid Ontario Launches Toll-Free Client Hotline

Posted in: "All, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | No Comments Thursday, April 22, 2010

Legal Aid Ontario has launched a client hotline to streamline their services.

By calling 1-800-668-8252, individuals throughout the province will have cost-free access to representatives on the following topics in 120 languages:

  • general legal aid information
  • certificate applications and assistance
  • summary advice for criminal and family matters
  • referrals to duty counsel, legal clinics and social services

The service is available from Monday to Friday, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm.

PSWLaw gladly accepts Legal Aid Certificates

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Criminal Lawyers Associations Ends Boycott against Legal Aid Ontario

Posted in: "All, Administrative Law, Family Law, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | No Comments Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Criminal Lawyers Association, which has been boycotting Legal Aid Ontario since June of 2009 to protest the hourly rate, has announced that it has reached an agreement with the province. Legal Aid will be increasing the hourly tariff for about 5% a year for the next few years.

The news release also says Legal Aid Ontario will be providing additional funding for enhanced family law (custody and access cases) and poverty law services (ODSP and OW appeals before the Social Benefits Tribunal and matters before the Landlord and Tenant Board).

For a tier 1 lawyer working the tariff rate, the first year’s raise will bring an additional $3.88 per hour, while  most senior lawyers will get an increase of about $5.

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Legal Assistance for the Middle Class in Manitoba

Posted in: "All, Family Law, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | 1 Comment Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Law Society of Manitoba recently approved a pilot project to make lawyers more accessible to those who often fall between the cracks of the legal system – the middle class, reported The Vancouver Sun.

While the poor in Manitoba have access to Legal Aid Manitoba, and the rich can simply write a cheque, many middle class individuals find the cost of retaining a lawyer daunting.

As a result, many people have no alternative but to represent
themselves without adequate understanding of the rules and procedures.
It often results in delay and waste of time and resources. A pity.

To address this problem, the Law Society of Manitoba will act as a brokerage for legal services on behalf of the Family Law Access Centre.

The Law Society will seek to buy legal services from the private bar at a discount rate and make them available to the public for family law cases involving issues such as divorce, custody, and support.

As a lawyer who practises in family law, I applaud this initiative. On many occasions I have personally had to decline meritorious matters because of the individuals’ lack of financial resources.

Let’s see if the pilot project becomes a success. Perhaps the Law Society of Manitoba’s Ontario counterpart will then follow suit.

PSWLaw- your family law legal advisor.

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PSWLaw Featured on The Lawyers Weekly

Posted in: "All, Business Development, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | 1 Comment Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I’m pleased to announce that my interview with journalist Michael Rappaport is being published on October 9 issue of The Lawyers Weekly under the headline”Hanging up the solo practice shingle.” The story is now available online and will become available in print shortly.

Here’s a sneak preview:

Attracting clients
Most solos are surprised by how much time and money they have to spend on advertising and marketing to attract clients. Wang estimates that a third of his budget in his first year was consumed by marketing. What makes spending on advertising especially tricky is that the results are often hit and miss.

Read the full story online:

www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&volume=29&number=21&article=4

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Article Review: Justice Denied by Dylan Young

Posted in: "All, Book Review, Business Development, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | No Comments Thursday, September 17, 2009

“The [boycott] move was not taken lightly. Many lawyers consider legal aid cases a vocational duty. But over the last 15 years that duty has become an untenable burden,” Dylan Young recently wrote for the magazine Precedent.*

Some outsiders, including lawyers practising outside the Legal Aid Ontario system, saw the boycott by the Criminal Lawyers’ Association against Legal Aid Ontario as holding the justice system hostage. “A lawyer’s greed can never be satisfied,” said a man I recently encountered on the subway.

But there’s more to the greed, the proverbial hostage-taking, and the tariff-increase ransom demanded by the lawyers, the author suggests.

Why is an hourly rate of $77.56-$96.56 not enough for lawyers, some might ask. Sean Robichaud, a criminal defence lawyer who built his now thriving practice on cases funded by Legal Aid, has explained as follows:

“[L]et’s say I have a case of a man who started firing a gun into a public place. I have to review all the disclosure, meet with my client several times, go to court appearances, meet with the families and the Crown, review maybe 20 officers’ notes and watch 27 DVDs of CCTV footage – all before I even go to preliminary hearings. If it’s a legal aid case, I’m allotted 16 hours for preparation unless I apply for a big case management exception. The actual work would take two, three , maybe even four times as long.”

Young goes further: “For one of these lawyers to take on a complex serious crimes case and dedicate not only their own time, but also that of articling students, clerks and junior counsel, $96.95 an hour is simply not a feasible way to run business.”

Besides examining these facts of business, the author also pointed out another flaw in the existing Legal Aid system – that of the power imbalance between the Crown and defence counsels.

For example, as Patrice Band, a former assistant Crown attorney, has pointed out: “In serious cases, there would often be two Crown counsel, the police who investigated the case were available to assist and experts would be retained as needed….” “Then I’d look across the aisle and see a defence lawyer working a case alone.”

The low-tariff rate, the petty allotted hours, and the boycott are only the symptoms of the emaciated Legal Aid Ontario. “The [justice] system only works if we accept that and make all the parts of it strong enough to keep all the other parts in check,” mused Robichaud. “Otherwise, it just topples over.”

Well said, indeed.

Dylan Young, “Justice Denied” Precedent (Fall 2009) 23 online:<http://www.lawandstyle.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=730&Itemid=113>

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Legal Aid Ontario to Get More Funding; AG Still Under Attack

Posted in: "All, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | No Comments Wednesday, September 9, 2009

A while ago I posted the blog “Legal Aid Ontario Faces $56M Deficit” on the projected budget gap of Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) this fiscal year. It seemed like the Province of Ontario has stepped in to fill the hole just in time.

Ontario’s Attorney General, the Honourable Chris Bentley announced on Tuesday, September 8, 2009, that the province will increase LAO funding of approximately $150M over the next four years. LAO is expected to receive about $60 million dollars for the current fiscal year.

However, criminal defence lawyers are not amused and call the funding “an insult,” reported the Globe and Mail.* The story reported that criminal defence lawyers in the province saw the funding increase as a band-aid solution that neglected to address the root of the problems. Paul Calarco, a senior lawyer in Toronto, lamented that the offer, which amounts to an increase of about 5% yet was billed as the biggest leap in the history of LAO, will only harden the resolve of the boycotting lawyers.

I have to admit, giving lawyers a raise has never been a popular cause, compared with, say, improving health care and reducing medical wait times. That being said, I do feel strongly that the chronic underfunding of LAO will eventually lead to its demise – the death of a publicly-funded program offering meaningful access to justice for the underprivileged.

The low hourly rate – less than what my automobile mechanic would charge – plus the tight caps on the hours allowed often lead to reluctance to accept LAO funded cases, particularly for experienced counsels, who can otherwise fill their docket with clients who pay the full rate. Clients facing serious and complicated legal problems often have to resort to less experienced lawyers – who may take more hours achieving the same results (or poorer ones) as the more experienced. As junior counsels fill up their hours, LAO becomes less able to offer competitive compensation. A vicious downward spiral hence perpetuates itself.

It’s time to get rid of the band-aid and apply proper stitches instead.

*Kirk Makin “Ontario lawyers continue legal aid boycott; cash infusion called an ‘insult’” The Globe and Mail (9 September 2009) Online: The Globe and Mail <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-lawyers-continue-legal-aid-boycott-cash-infusion-an-insult/article1280110/#article>

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Legal Aid Ontario Faces $56M Shorfall

Posted in: "All, Legal Aid Ontario by Admin | No Comments Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Globe and Mail published this story today on Legal Aid Ontario‘s  $56M shortfall.

According to the story, as the economy slumps, LAO has been losing revenue from the Law Foundation, which grants three-quarters of its income to LAO. The income mainly consists of interest accrued in Ontario lawyers’ trust accounts. (See my blog on the Law Foundation, “Trust Money & Interest” on January 21, 2009.)

This year, the LAO is facing a $56 million shortfall. The CEO and president of LAO said that it will likely be years before LAO’s revenue from the Law Foundation recovers.

Unless LAO receives adequate funding from the province immediately, the agency will likely start making cuts. The staff lawyers at Legal Aid clinics across the province are understandably angry, as they may be forced to spend less face-to-face time with their clients, who in turn would have to seek legal advice from the internet or over the phone.

This will likely create more confusion than assistance to low-income Ontario residents, who are often ill-equipped to participate in legal proceedings on their own.

Let’s hope the certificate program (which I participate in extensively) won’t be affected as much as the staff lawyers. After all, my mechanic is already charging me an hourly rate that’s well above my LAO tariff rate.

PSWLaw gladly accepts legal aid certificates.

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