In brief: News for lawyers

If you’re an experienced criminal lawyer who’s interested in advising Legal Aid Ontario on cases that are either factually or legally complex, then we want to hear from you. We have an advisory committee made up of criminal lawyers who: review written materials including budget requests hear oral submissions from lawyer applicants help lawyer applicants…

Legal Aid Ontario has refined its process for the charges heard separately exception to ensure all new certificate requests meet legal aid eligibility requirements. The new process includes answering additional questions to help determine if the new charges meet the criteria when you make a request for a separate certificate through Legal Aid Online. As…

  In June 2016, the Divisional Court released its decision in Wang v. Lin. The court held that the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters (Hague Service Convention) applies to family law cases. This means that, when a respondent lives in a country that is signatory to…

Legal Aid Ontario’s Mental Health Appeals program will once again consider merit for Consent and Capacity (CCB) appeals, beginning November 20, 2017. Appeals with little or no merit will no longer be funded. The new merit assessment test will include a mandatory stage, requiring area committees to consider reasonable likelihood of success of appeals based…

Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) is working with the Ontario Court of Justice, criminal defence bar and the Ministry of the Attorney General on a pilot project to fund matters in participating Ontario Court of Justice locations where a second JPT or substantially similar event has been scheduled. This pilot will run until March 31, 2018…