No Funding For The Disadvantaged In Ontario

Sounds like a culling for 4 years, with nothing to suggest paralegals being allowed tap into Legal Aid funding for the disadvantaged.


Ron Payne
Welfare Legal
Hamilton, Ontario


The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) has committed to expanding the paralegal scope of practice over the next four years.
Presented to Convocation Dec. 4, the Priority Planning Committee strategic plan report to Convocation outlines significant changes that will have a dramatic effect on the future of legal services in Ontario. The changes are “robust and ambitious,” affecting paralegal education entry standards, mentoring, professional development, and competence assurance, in addition to expanding the scope of practice.
Paralegal-specific measures in the Strategic Plan 2015–2019 include:

• Working to ensure that high quality instruction is being offered by the accredited institutions that educate paralegal licensee candidates
• Examining enhancements to the paralegal licensing requirements, including possible additional education and training prior to entering an accredited paralegal program
• Exploring the expansion of areas of practice and delivery of services by paralegal licensees

http://paralegalscope.com/scope-to-expand-over-next-four-years/

ODSP And Legal Aid

A single on ODSP does not qualify for a legal aid certificate, according to this article, because they receive too much money.

When did this change?


Who is responsible for this?


Why?

But when it comes to eligibility criteria for legal aid, Ontario is on the low end. In a province with a median family income of $73,290, the cut off for a legal aid certificate is $10,800 for a single-person household and $18,684 for a family of two people.
http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201401203721/headline-news/how-does-ontario-legal-aid-compare