Financial eligibility: Issue with income and assets amount field in duty counsel accounts fixed and other enhancements
Published: July 28, 2025
LAO makes further enhancements to duty counsel worksheet and Legal Aid Online
LAO has made further updates to the duty counsel worksheet in Service Integration and Legal Aid Online to enhance the accuracy of information recorded and improve reporting of client services.
Manual $0 entry now accepted
You can now manually enter $0 in the income and asset fields if the client has no income or assets. The system will no longer clear these fields automatically when zero is entered. LAO has also updated all worksheets where “$1” was used as a placeholder in the income and asset fields to reflect the zero values.
New income field help text added
If you have clients who are unsure of their income, help text is now available so you can see the estimated annual Ontario Works/ODSP amounts and complete the fields as appropriate.
Click here to download image.
More exemption options
LAO has expanded the selection of exemption reasons on Service Integration and the duty counsel worksheets to support greater precision in the information recorded. New reasons include when
- Legal information/referral has been provided, and it is not possible or appropriate to assess financial status
- Family duty counsel assists with a client’s written consent, agency assistance is provided to an out of custody client on an exceptional basis
Click here to download image.