About Legal Aid Ontario
Fact Sheets
Panel Memberships
Across the province, lawyers provide a valuable service by representing legal aid clients; thus ensuring that Ontarians have access to justice regardless of income level. To make certain that all clients receive high quality legal aid services, Legal Aid Ontario has panel standards that detail the necessary experience and professional development requirements for lawyers working with legal aid clients. Legal Aid Ontario has panels for the following areas of law:
- criminal, which includes the Extremely Serious Matters panel;
- family law, which includes the Child and Family Services Act sub-panel;
- refugees and immigration law; and
- Consent and Capacity Board.
In order to provide services to legal aid clients, lawyers must apply for admission to the panel that governs that particular type of law. For example, lawyers who want to represent clients in family law cases must apply to, and meet the requirements of, the family law panel.
If a lawyer is new to an area of practice, they may be admitted conditionally to a panel if they agree to acquire the necessary experience and take continuing legal education or be mentored by their district area director. However, this conditional admission does not apply to the Extremely Serious Criminal matters panel, as these cases generally require more experienced lawyers.
Ongoing annual professional development is necessary to continue to maintain panel membership.
Certificate Panel Memberships: July 2008 - October 2010
October 2010 statistics
Actual Number of lawyers on all panel lists: 4563
Panel Breakdown (October 2010)
Criminal |
Family |
CFSA |
Refugee |
Consent & |
ESM |
|
Total Lawyers on Panel |
2921 |
2425 |
1392 |
688 |
291 |
715 |
% approved conditionally |
23.0% |
19.2% |
22.1% |
32.4% |
22.3% |
NA |
More information
More information regarding Legal Aid Ontario's Panel Standards, including required forms and FAQ pages, can be found in our Information for Lawyers section.
See also:
- About Legal Aid Ontario
- Services for clients
- Initiatives and departments
- Legal Aid Ontario and lawyers
Questions?
For more information on this topic contact media@lao.on.ca
