The plan has been the most successful in the area of criminal law. Persons in need of legal assistance could be easily identified. They did not have to seek legal assistance. Public defenders in the courts of first instance sought and provided legal assistance to those in need. The only group whose legal aid needs are not being met is the chronically poor. This is not limited to the Ontario Plan; It is common to almost all legal aid schemes. Ultimately, the ultimate measure of the success of the Ontario Legal Aid Plan may well be how successful it has been in reaching the chronically poor who need legal aid and are now largely unable to receive. In the early 1960s, it was clear that the voluntary legal aid system was not comprehensive enough to meet the actual demand for legal aid in the province. Not everyone who needs legal aid has it, and it is rightly estimated that the demand will increase rather than decrease in the future.
There was also a growing belief that legal aid is an integral part of the administration of justice and that access to legal aid should be a “right” for those who do not have sufficient resources, not something of the nature of charity. At the provincial level, there is an advisory committee on legal aid. It is composed of judges, lawyers, a person in a position of responsibility in the field of public welfare and other persons who may be appointed by the Attorney General. The Committee is required to report to the Attorney-General at least once a year on the implementation of the Legal Aid Plan and on the annual report of the Law Society, which it must prepare on the basis of statistics, financial information and other general information on the operation of the Legal Aid Act. The Joint Committee`s report was presented to the Ontario Legislature in April 1965. He recommended a comprehensive legal aid plan administered by the Law Society and subsidized by the provincial government. In October 1965, the Attorney General asked the Law Society to establish a committee to propose a plan for implementing the report. This new committee drafted the Legal Aid Bill 1966,4 which was passed by Parliament on 28 June 1966. In order to encourage those who continue to be exploited to assert their legal rights, it may be necessary to provide legal aid to the poor and not expect the poor to seek it. For example, a local legal centre staffed by duty counsel could be taken to the poorest and most disadvantaged areas at great expense. Social workers should be part of the staff of any such legal centre. In many cases, lawyers do not have the patience, time and training to help these inarticulate individuals who are not knowledgeable enough to know the nature of their problems or the questions to ask when referred to a lawyer.
In various appeals, including an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, an appeal may also be allowed, subject to the approval of the Legal Aid Board. It will become clear that an essential feature of legal aid in Ontario is the attempt to preserve the independence of the profession. All administrative decisions of a professional nature belong to the company. On the other hand, decisions such as the scope and nature of legal aid, which are inherent in the nature of policy decisions, are a matter for government. The lawyer`s right to choose his or her own client is preserved. A lawyer is not obliged to act on behalf of a person who gives him a certificate. There is a normal relationship with a client between a person supported by the lawyer and the lawyer of his choice. Except in the case of the public defender, the court should not know whether a defendant or a party is entitled to legal aid or bears the full costs of the defence lawyer appearing on his behalf. The first legal aid plan in Ontario was included in An Act to amend the Law Society Act of 1951.3 It was also a voluntary plan. The lawyers provided their services free of charge. However, the Ontario government paid out about $30,000 per year, from which the statutory payments were made. The plan was administered by the Law Society through local directors and legal aid committees in each of the province`s countries and districts.
In the 16 years of this plan, a simple legal aid benefit has become free and easily accessible. Another concern of the plan is the lack of lawyers who have been able to attract very large legal aid firms, particularly in the area of criminal law. If a lawyer takes on too many cases or too much work, the client assisted by the lawyer may not receive the quality of the legal services provided. In addition, these lawyers, who may have charged $20,000 or more a year for the legal aid system, leave the plan subject to criticism that it would be much cheaper to run a public defense system through hired lawyers. In response to this criticism, the Law Society recently decided, on an experimental basis, that the number of legal aid certificates in criminal matters that a lawyer can accept should be limited to 75 per fiscal year without the prior consent of the Provincial Director. It was felt that one of the results of this measure would be to distribute this type of work among a broader group of lawyers, thereby further increasing the penalties necessary for the proper functioning of the regime. The plan will be administered by a Director of Legal Aid appointed by the Law Society, subject to approval by the Attorney General.7 The province is divided into 46 legal aid regions, most of which coincide with Ontario`s counties and districts. In each sector, there is a regional director who is responsible for the maintenance of a legal aid office, all of whose leases are in the name of the Law Society. The Regional Director is also responsible for establishing and maintaining mandatory legal and advisory advisory bodies for his or her region. In early 1969, a special meeting was held with the Assistant Attorney General and senior officials of the Department of Family and Social Services to discuss the procedure, philosophy and criteria used by the Department to determine the financial eligibility of applicants for legal aid. It was agreed to redefine factors such as the sale of real estate, as they relate to the financial need for legal assistance. An application for legal aid must be forwarded to a social welfare officer of the Ministry of Social Welfare, unless the probable cost of the legal aid required is $60 or less.
The social assistance officer takes into account income, available capital, debt, the needs of the applicant and any other circumstances that the applicant considers relevant. There is no longer an arbitrary resource test as was the case in previous plans. The only criterion is “need” and need is weighed against the cost of legal aid required. After examining the applicant, the animal welfare officer shall inform the Regional Director whether the applicant cannot cover part, part or all of the costs of legal aid applied for and, if so, how much the applicant can contribute to the costs. The regional director may issue a legal aid certificate only if he has received the social agent`s report and only if he considers that the issuance of a certificate is justified. However, it is the regional director, not the social officer, who makes the final decision as to who receives legal aid. If the poor are to know their rights, to know the protection that the law can afford, and to take the initiative to assert those rights when necessary, they must first be warned of the many common forms of exploitation that surround them. The legal aid company in Atlainta, Georgia, placed ads such as “They fixed my porch, but they took my house” or “I`d rather walk around town than pay 450 for a bunch of greens” on city buses as part of the advertising program.