In brief: News for lawyers

On November 18, 2019 LAO will provide some additional family duty counsel services.

We have recently moved to a new District structure that very closely matches the Ontario Court of Justice (OCJ) judicial districts, except for the North where we now have one District while the OCJ has two. This results in our total number of districts having been reduced from 10 to 6. The objective of the…

Further to LAO’s August announcement restoring immigration and refugee services, starting September 23, 2019, RPD hearing preparation authorizations for most claims will again be available after a claim has been referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board and when lawyers need to begin preparation work. The requirement for a hearing to be scheduled will no longer…

Further to our June announcement on certificate coverage changes, please be reminded that we have made the following changes to the certificate program. Effective date: June 12, 2019 LAO will no longer pay acknowledgement fees for accepting certificates issued on or after this date. June 26, 2019 LAO will no longer pay an appearance fee…

Effective July 7, there will be key changes to duty counsel responsibilities. In making these changes, LAO was guided by the following principles: prioritize LAO resources and services to our clients with the highest risk provide services to LAO clients that are legally and financially eligible establish a framework for consistent services continuously monitor, measure and…

LAO is changing the way we fund, provide and manage legal services. Our priority remains to provide quality frontline service to our clients, while regularly reviewing our programs to better and more efficiently deliver them. We are updating the following certificate policies and programs in stages, and will provide more detailed information to the relevant…

Legal Aid Ontario’s refugee law offices in Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa are working under new case selection criteria, designed to serve the clients most in need. The refugee law offices in these locations will assist financially eligible clients with: refugee appeal matters judicial review matters refugee and immigration services for particularly vulnerable clients As these…

Following the province’s April 11th instruction to Legal Aid Ontario to use only federal funding for refugee and immigration services, LAO may only use an estimated $13 to $16.5 million in current federal funds for new services in this current fiscal year. LAO is permitted to use provincial dollars for transition costs. Our projected costs for 2019‑20 refugee…

Join us for a free webinar on how to effectively use the Legal Aid Online billing portal to get paid quickly and accurately. As a bonus, participants will earn one professionalism CPD hour. Date: Saturday, March 2, 2019 Time: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. LSO ACCREDITED CPD Space is limited. Register today. Secure your spot by emailing lawcpd@pm.me with…

Starting February 24, 2019, certificate accounts eligible for automatic payment will be paid on the first Wednesday or Friday 14 days after they are submitted—instead of the current 21. We are pleased to announce that about 120,000 accounts per year will benefit from this change, made in response to your ongoing feedback and our latest Lawyer Satisfaction Survey….