LAO-Related information from the Ombudsman’s 2024-25 Annual Report (released 25 June 2025)

Published: May 28, 2026

Background

Established in 1975, the Ontario Ombudsman marked its 50th anniversary in 2025.  As an independent Office of the Legislature, it operates separately from government and political parties, assisting Ontarians in resolving complaints and identifying systemic issues within provincial government services and administration.   The Ontario Ombudsman oversees more than 1,000 public sector entities, including more than 500 provincial ministries, programs, agencies, boards, commissions, corporations and tribunals.  It also covers municipalities, school boards, school authorities, universities and Children’s Aid Societies, and the former offices of the French Language Services Commissioner and the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth.

The Complaints department, acting as the liaison between LAO and the Office of the Ombudsman, receives inquiries from the Ombudsman’s Early Resolution Officers on behalf of members of the public.

Details

For the 2024-25 fiscal year, inquiries pertaining to Legal Aid Ontario and legal clinics represented just 0.4% of all cases received by the Ombudsman (131 out of 30,675 cases).

The Complaints Department received 25 inquiries from the Office of the Ombudsman during the 2024-25 fiscal year.  This demonstrates that most inquiries were resolved directly by Ombudsman staff reflecting the strength of the working relationship between LAO and the Ombudsman, and the depth of knowledge the Ombudsman’s team has developed regarding LAO’s policies and procedures.

Complaints involving LAO and legal clinics accounted for 7% of all complaints against agencies reporting to the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG) even though LAO represents a significant amount of the agency funding allocated to MAG.  There were 1,997 complaints pertaining to MAG and its agencies with 107 of those inquiries pertaining to LAO and 24 pertaining to Legal Aid clinics.

LAO did not appear among the top-10 provincial government organizations and programs complained about to the Ontario Ombudsman during 2024-25 and no case studies in the annual report involved LAO.

Conclusion

We will continue to enhance our relationship with the Ontario Ombudsman and to use inquiries as opportunities to identify and address potential gaps in our policies and procedures.