Youth legal issues
Legal Aid Ontario has services for youth dealing with family or criminal legal aid issues. For more information you can call us toll-free at 1-800-668-8258 or at 416-979-1446 if you are calling from Toronto or the GTA. These services are multilingual, confidential, and impartial.
Criminal legal issues
Are you between 12 and 17? Have the police charged you with a crime? You, your parents or your legal guardian can call us. If you qualify, we will help pay for a lawyer to represent you.
If you are in court and you do not have a lawyer, talk to the lawyer at the courthouse (they are called duty counsel) for help. Duty counsel can:
- give you advice and information
- tell you about your rights and what you have to do
- tell you how the court process works
- in some cases, help you with your documents
- in some cases, be your lawyer for that day
Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs)
IRCAs are reports that help judges consider how racism, poverty and discrimination have contributed to a Black or racialized person’s interactions with the justice system. The reports are used mainly at the sentencing stage of a trial and they help the judge decide what the sentence should be.
To learn more and find out if you are eligible for an IRCA report, visit the Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs) page.
Family legal issues
We can help you if Children’s Aid has your children. Go to our legal aid lawyer at the family courthouse (they are called duty counsel) and that lawyer may:
- help you get an access order, which is supervised time with your children, or another temporary order that allows you time with your children
- help with a referral to the Office of the Children’s Lawyer. You have to have this referral if you have never been married and you are 18 years old or younger
We may also pay for a lawyer if:
- you are 18 or younger and you want the person who is caring for your child to give you access
- you are a young person who wants to have access to your siblings
- you are 18 or younger and want child support from your parents
Other ways we can help
If you do not qualify for a lawyer that we will help pay for, there are other ways that we might be able to help:
- get referrals to help with your legal problem (such as duty counsel and legal clinics)
- get referrals to other agencies
- talk to a lawyer for a maximum of 20 minutes if you have a family legal problem. The lawyer will give you general legal advice and explain what you can do to help with your legal case