Law Times

Law Times • January 19, 2015 Page 5 www.lawtimesnews.com LAO readies for 2015 after a year of major changes By yamri Taddese Law Times t was an eventful year at Legal Aid Ontario with changes from increases in eligibility requirements for the first time in nearly 20 years to a proposal to amal- gamate legal clinics in the Toronto area. Last year, LAO doubled the number of hours family lawyers could spend on child protection services. It has also been expanding duty counsel services and funding student legal clinics as part of a model that branches out of service provision by the private bar. At the end of the year, Law Times sat down with LAO board chairman John McCamus to talk about what all of the changes mean and what's in store for legal aid in 2015. Below is a partly condensed version of the inter- view. n Law Times: According to the clinic transformation project report that came out in 2014, the proposal to reduce 16 of the Greater Toronto Area's legal clinics to five or six organizations would require additional re- sources. Is LAO prepared to provide more funding to clinics? McCamus: The new funding from the province of Ontario on financial eligibility — which as you know amounts to close to $100 million over three years and will involve changing the financial eligibility rules for all the services we provide, including the clinics — will be utilized by us, in part at least, to increase the capac- ity of the clinic system to deal with increased demand. So we do expect that some resources will f low into the clinic system, not specifically because of the transfor- mation [project] but because we have an opportunity to expand the clinic system and we will work with the clinics to accomplish that objective. n Law Times: What are your thoughts on the clinic transformation proposal and the criticism that has come from a couple of the clinics as well as law profes- sors and others? McCamus: We are not participating in the debate. We are very interested observers and we want to do what we can to support efforts to modernize the sys- tem, but these are decisions that have to be made by the clinics themselves individually or in groups. We do think there is some misinformation being spread by those who are critical of the proposals and in par- ticular some suggest that many clinics will be closed. My understanding is that that's not the case. The GTA group wants to expand the number of locations ser- vices would be provided. But again, this is a debate for the clinic community itself. n Law Times: The other big thing that happened in 2014 was the new funding from the provincial government and the resulting increase in the eligibility criteria. What does this new funding mean and are you happy with it? McCamus: It's a wonderful breakthrough. It's really an historic change in the funding of legal aid. The static na- ture of financial eligibility for the last 18 years has had a very negative impact on the legal aid system and accord- ingly it's wonderful that the provincial government has decided to tackle this issue head-on, especially in a diffi- cult fiscal climate, and enable us to address some serious problems in access to justice and the administration of the justice system. So it's a very welcome development. We do hope that these increases continue in the years ahead but we're very pleased that the government has committed to three six-per-cent increases in eligibility over the next couple of years. n Law Times: Can you speak a bit about the role of the federal government in funding legal aid? Should the province do more to lobby the federal government to provide more funding to legal aid? McCamus: I think the provincial government does make representa- tions to the federal government to encourage a higher level of support from the federal government. And it is true that federal support for legal aid has declined over the years. So we certainly would welcome greater support from the federal government and we're delighted that the provin- cial government has been, for many years now, pursuing that possibility. n Law Times: Another thing we've seen throughout this year are new ways of providing services outside of the pri- vate bar. They include funding stu- dent legal clinics as well as expansion of duty counsel and some paralegal services. What's the broader vision in expanding these services outside of the private bar? McCamus: Legal Aid Ontario is really quite focused on our clients: the services that we provide to them, filling gaps in provision, and so on. In terms of the overall vi- sion, we expect that services will continue to be provid- ed in the overwhelming majority of cases by members of the private bar. Our statute provides that the private bar is to be the foundation of service provision in these areas and we have no intention of changing that but we do complement what the private bar is doing by arrang- ing for other types of services to be provided. n Law Times: You speak of a gap in services. Has that always existed? McCamus: There was a very severe cutback in the funding of legal aid in the early 1990s, so there have been problems since then. We have been gradually trying to address them over time in a very difficult fiscal climate for us. So yes, these problems have been around for a while, especially in the family law field and we're delighted to make some progress. n Law Times: Some people have said if you're able to ex- pand duty counsel or staff lawyer services, why couldn't you just fund certificates? Instead of expanding those other services, why not turn to the private bar? McCamus: There are people who are not eligible for le- gal aid certificates who are nonetheless in urgent need of service. If they're eligible for duty counsel service, then service can be provided to them through that means. n Law Times: Are LAO staff lawyers not doing work pre- viously done by the private bar? McCamus: That's not my understanding or expecta- tion. Now, if we're talking about criminal law, it's true that the Justice on Target program of the Ministry of the Attorney General has had the effect of leading Crown attorneys to make earlier offers as means of disposing of charges such as withdrawal of charges, diversion, or guilty pleas. And these proposals are be- ing put to duty counsel. In the old days, when these proposals wouldn't happen as quickly, they would of- ten go to people on certificates. So that has shifted the work to some extent from private bar to duty counsel. n Law Times: Would you agree that this diversification of service provision outside of the private bar ref lects a change in philosophy for Legal Aid Ontario? McCamus: I don't think so. I think Legal Aid On- tario has always believed there should be a mix of services. Legal Aid Ontario opened up some crimi- nal law offices some years ago. They were eventually closed down but they were an experiment in trying to provide services in a different way. n Law Times: The Criminal Lawyers' Association has expressed concerns about lack of consultation when these changes are coming down the pipe. What do you say to that? McCamus: We spend a lot time speaking with members of the Criminal Lawyers' Association's ex- ecutives and others. We have adviso- ry committees in every field, which we meet with regularly. I understand that people would always like to have more consultations and we are doing our best to consult more frequently and we find it extremely helpful to do so. Consultation is a difficult business. It's possible to suggest that there's never such a thing as enough consultation, but we do a lot of it. n Law Times: Refugee lawyers in the private bar would say legal aid lawyers are now taking on some of the work they used to do. I believe they've tried to bring their concerns about this to LAO, but they say they weren't able to speak to the board or president Bob Ward. Why is that? McCamus: I think those concerns have been expressed. They've been brought to the attention of senior manage- ment and the board. It's true that the board doesn't meet directly with stakeholders on an ongoing and regular basis. The view of the board is that senior management should engage in those consultations and report back to the board. It would be an expensive process to have the board f ly in from across the province and meet regu- larly with groups when it can be done efficiently and ef- fectively by senior management. n Law Times: The other thing that has been in the news is the bid by legal aid lawyers to join a union. Why has LAO not been keen on that idea? McCamus: I don't think that is a suitable topic for me to discuss publicly. I'm not sure I agree with your characterization of it. Again, I don't think it's useful for me to comment on matters of this kind. n Law Times: If you had all the money in the world for legal aid, what do you envision the system would look like? McCamus: We will probably continue to have a mixed system that will have a small staff component where that's desirable. We'd fill in the gaps in service that we experience. More generally, we feel there are needs for services for vulnerable groups that require strengthening. We are indeed developing strategies to improve services provided to members of the ab- original community. We have developed a strategy to try and improve services we provide to clients with mental-health issues not just in criminal law but across the broad range of services we provide. We'd want to invest more in that. We are currently trying to work on a strategy for improving services we pro- vide to victims of domestic violence. n Law Times: Can we expect more changes at LAO in 2015? McCamus: The principal area of change for next year involves the implementation of the new finan- cial eligibility financing. This will be a major preoc- cupation for us. It's obviously a challenging task. It's something we want to do as quickly as possible and fairly and transparently in collaboration with our service providers in the private bar. Obviously, we want to get the services that are now possible to deliv- er out to the people who need them and we will work very hard to ensure that the government is satisfied that the money is wisely invested, that it actually is increasing access to justice, that it actually is improv- ing the administration of justice in the province. It is through effective implementation of this initiative that I think we will demonstrate that this is a valuable thing to do and, accordingly, it should continue on in the future. LT NEWS I Implementing the new financial eligibil- ity criteria will be a major focus for Legal Aid Ontario in 2015, says John McCamus. Photo: Yamri Taddese ARE YOU RECEIVING CANADIAN LEGAL NEWSWIRE? Keep abreast of essential late-breaking legal news and developments with our electronic newswire. VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM AND LOOK UNDER "LINKS" SIGN UP FOR FREE From the publisher of and Untitled-5 1 14-05-27 1:38 PM

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