Interested in doing legal aid work?

Lawyers who represent legal aid clients must be authorized to provide services in the area(s) of law they practice. The standards for each area provide the minimum experience and professional development requirements that lawyers must meet. Standards help ensure that legal aid clients receive high‑quality services.

How to become a legal aid service provider

Step one: Get started

Before you can do any paid work for a legal aid client you must first be authorized by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) to provide legal aid services in a specific area(s) of law and in the geographic area that your primarily practice law (if you practice in multiple cities, you must select one area as your home base).

The authorization process can take anywhere from three to six weeks to complete.

To start the process you must meet all applicable standards. The following documents must be completed and submitted to the district office serving the region of your law practice via fax or email:

• A completed application form for those areas of law in which you wish to practice

  • Complex case rate
  • Consent and capacity board
  • Criminal
  • Duty counsel—court criminal, court family and FLIC
  • Duty counsel—advice lawyer
  • Extremely serious criminal matters
  • Family and CYFSA
  • Gladue
  • Refugee and immigration

• A voided cheque for your business (your name or your firm’s name must be printed on the cheque)

  • A completed direct deposit authorization form from your bank
  • Your HST number
  • A release for information from your professional indemnity company
  • A release for information from the Law Society of Ontario, and
  • If relevant, an update of your Law Society of Ontario status to confirm that you are licensed to practice and a member in good standing

Send your application to:

• Central East District
  – includes the counties of Haliburton, Bracebridge, Peterborough, Coburg, Durham, Kawartha Lakes, Orillia, Newmarket and Barrie

  Director General: Lisa Banerjee
  Phone: 705-737-3400 / 1-888-590-3961 (toll free)
  Email: banerjl@lao.on.ca

• Central West District
  – includes the counties of Norfolk, Haldimand, Brant, Hamilton, Niagara, Halton, Peel and Dufferin

  Director General: Matthew Hammond
  Phone: 905-528-0134 / 1-877-449-4003 (toll free)
  Email: hammondm@lao.on.ca

• East District
  – includes the counties of Hastings, Lennox and Addington, Frontenac, Leeds and Grenville, Lanark, Renfrew, Ottawa and Carleton, Prescott and Russell and Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry

  Director General: Annik Wills
  Phone: 613-238-7931 / 1-877-314-0933
  Email: easterndistrictroster@lao.on.ca

• North District
  – includes the districts of Kenora, Rainy River, Thunder Bay, Cochrane, Algoma, Timiskaming, Parry Sound and Sudbury

  Director General: Andreas Asmus
  Phone: 807-345-1972 / 1-866-297-5559 (toll free)
  Email: asmusa@lao.on.ca

• Toronto District
  – includes East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough and Old Toronto

  Director General: Tom Kelsey
  
  Email: empgta@lao.on.ca

• West District
  – includes the counties of Essex, Lambton, Chatham-Kent, Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Middlesex, Wellington and Waterloo

  Director General: Kaitlyn McCabe
  Phone: 519-255-7822 / 1-877-449-4002 (toll free)
  Email: mccabek@lao.on.ca

Step two: Meet with your director general

Once all of the application documents arrive at your area’s district office, the director general may contact you to set up an informal discussion. If you wish, you can call the director general yourself to arrange this meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to get to know each other and to discuss your expectations for doing Legal Aid Ontario work. You will then get a letter from the director general that confirms:

• you are authorized to provide legal aid services
• the areas of law you have been approved for
• the conditions, if any, that apply to your legal aid practice (if you are new to the practice of law or to a particular area of law, these conditions may include achieving prescribed standards in a set period of time, reviewing mandatory substantive law materials).

The director general will forward your application package to Legal Aid Ontario’s Provincial Office for processing.

Step three: Await your Legal Aid Ontario welcome package

You will receive, in the mail, a Legal Aid Ontario welcome package that includes:

• your Legal Aid Ontario solicitor number/vendor number
• your tier level (the level at which you can bill; if you are a new call, you will be billing at the Tier 1 level for criminal, mental health, prison law, tribunals and civil litigation)
• your user ID, password and other information about Legal Aid Online (Legal Aid Ontario’s online billing portal
• technical tips for online billing
• contact information for billing questions/concerns
• information about conditions on your of providing legal aid services specific to your situation, if any.

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Forms

• Applications forms
• Request for authorizations forms
• Release of information

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Questions

For more information on standards, please contact your local director general.

Contact the Finance Department if you have questions about the following:

• Fully completed applications that have been approved by district offices
• Tier level increases
• Maintaining vendor records (address changes, updating banking information, etc.)
• HST refunds
• Government/legal garnishment
• Electronic fund transfer (bank EFT) rejections

Contact
Finance Department
Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday
Fax: 647‑260‑0548
Telephone: 416‑979‑2352