Legal Aid Ontario’s financial eligibility guidelines

Legal Aid Ontario provides legal help for financially eligible low‑income Ontarians. When you apply for our services, you must undergo a financial eligibility test. This test allows us to determine whether a client qualifies for our services.

Financial eligibility for an individual is based on three components: the family unit, the income of the family unit, and the assets of the family unit. If the individual tested has income above the cut‑off levels and/or assets which exceed the exemption level, legal services may not be provided.

Our financial eligibility guidelines changed when the
Legal Aid Services Act, 2020 (LASA 2020) was passed into law on July 8, 2020 and came into effect October 18, 2021. LASA 2020 ushers in a modern approach to the management and administration of legal aid in Ontario. Our policies that govern financial eligibility, including the way we calculate household income and the parameters that this income must fall within, have been updated to help us better serve our clients.

For more information about legal aid eligibility, please review our guidelines:

• LASA 2020 rules page for financial and other eligibility criteria for legal aid certificates based on legal need. This includes the need for child protection law services, mental health law services, family law services, refugee and immigration services, and criminal law services.
• Financial eligibility test for duty counsel services
• Clinic financial eligibility test

Archived versions

Archived versions of our past financial eligibility guidelines may be found below. Please note that these links reference outdated guidelines that no longer apply to our current financial eligibility testing. They are for archive purposes only:

• Financial eligibility test for legal aid certificates
  Updated: November 2016
• Financial eligibility test for duty counsel services
  Updated: November 2016
• Clinic financial eligibility test
  Updated: November 2016