What are duty counsel?

Duty counsel are lawyers provided by Legal Aid Ontario who can assist you on the day that you are in court.

If you do not have a lawyer and you are in court, duty counsel may be able to help you by:

• Giving you advice about your legal rights, obligations and the court process;
• Helping you in the courtroom with asking for an adjournment, conducting a bail hearing; assisting with a guilty plea; or making submissions at a sentencing hearing;
• Holding a resolution meeting (Crown pre‑trial) with the Crown;
• In some courthouses, assisting you with an unrepresented judicial pre‑trial;
• Referring you to another form of legal aid assistance, such as LAO’s toll‑free telephone service or a legal aid worker in the courthouse

Duty counsel may have to ask you some questions about your financial situation to see if you qualify for certain services. You may not qualify for all duty counsel services.

Duty Counsel will not have ongoing responsibility for your case. If you come back to court more than once, you may speak to a different duty counsel each time.

Like all lawyers, duty counsel are bound by a duty of confidentiality to every client they assist. This means that duty counsel cannot share any information they learn from you while working with you, except in very exceptional circumstances. They must keep your information private, even when you are no longer their client.

To find the location of the duty counsel office that is either in or nearest to the courthouse where your matter is being heard, please use our Find A Duty Counsel Office tool. Please note that you must attend the courthouse that is listed in your court documents and not the courthouse that is nearest to your residential address.