Law Times

PAGE 4 NEWS AUGUST 11-18, 2008 / LAW TIMES Employees will be doing 'same work' Continued from page 1 legal aid clinic workers and the new legal support centre. Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario executive director Lenny Abramowicz says the amount paid to clinics from LAO for staff members is based on a funding formula. The formula is based on a lawyer's year of call to the bar or, for support workers, the number of years' experience in the legal clinic system, he says. Boards of directors of individual clinics decide what workers will be paid, but the LAO funding for- mula effectively operates as a salary grid, as clinics would be "robbing Peter to pay Paul" if they deviated from it, Abramowicz says. He says LAO's funding for clin- ic positions is as follows: • Clinics receive $87,000 for ex- ecutive directors called to the bar in 2007. The upper end • $58,000 for staff lawyers called to the bar in 2007, $106,000 for those called in 1960. of the "grid" is $123,000 for a 1960 call to the bar. • $36,000 for support staff in the system since 2007, and $44,000 for support staff in the system since 1960. Abramowicz notes that the up- per ranges are basically irrelevant, as the vast majority of workers it recruits are recent graduates. Cathy Laird, executive director of the HRLSC, gave the following information regarding salary ranges for the centre's employees: • Legal counsel are paid $80,000 to $110,000. • $50,000 for community legal workers in the system since 2007, and $65,000 for those in the system since 1960. • Staff lawyers are paid $72,000 to $90,000. tant retained by the Ministry of the Attorney General recom- mended the salary ranges for employees at the support centre. The employees will be doing • Intake workers, called "legal service representatives," are paid $56,000 to $70,000. She says there is an additional pay level for interns, who are 2008 grad- uates. They are paid $44,000 to $55,000 as intake workers. Laird says an outside consul- funded by LAO, she says. Of four intake staff members, three came from clinics, she says. Most of the workers were hired form the Toronto area, but some have come from outside the area, says Laird, who worked in the clin- ic system for about 15 years. It's not surprising that legal aid Welikovitch says those individu- als must deal with the added stress of a possible hearing postponement of up to five months if their new lawyer can' "the same work" there versus the clinics, she says. The legal support centre opened on June 30, and Laird says adver- tisements for jobs started running in May. She says 40 employees have been hired on a staggered ba- sis over the summer, including 19 lawyers and two paralegals. About 50 per cent of the law- yers have been hired from legal aid clinics or other organizations clinic workers were successful in the job application process, she says. "They have experience deal- ing with human rights issues that arise in a number of different legal forums and legal fact situations," she says. "They have excellent ex- perience in frontline legal work." Laird says she appreciates that the clinics will have to fill the positions lost to the support centre, but says it creates oppor- tunities for more recent grads interested in social justice work, which can be hard to find. Welikovitch describes the West Toronto clinic as "a small clinic that serves a very large catchment area. It' we're understaffed in terms of law- yers would be an understatement." In addition to Welikovitch, s a very busy clinic. To say that who can't carry a full caseload due to other responsibilities, the clinic has two staff lawyer positions. But on July 17, both left to Announcement The Law Foundation of Ontario is pleased to announce that the 2007 Annual Report is available on our website at: www.lawfoundation.on.ca We also invite you to visit our website for information about the Foundation's activities and grants program. Bound copies of our Annual Report are also available. Annonce La Fondation du droit de l'Ontario est heureuse d'annoncer que son rapport annuel 2007 est accessible sur son site Web à l'addresse suivante: www.lawfoundation.on.ca Nous vous invitons egalement à visiter notre site Web pour obtenir de l'information sur les activités de la Fondation et les programmes de subventions. Vous pouvez également obtenir le rapport sur support papier. Il suffi t d'en faire la de- mande par téléphone au (416) 598-1550 ou par courriel à general@lawfoundation.on.ca Il nous fera plaisir de vous en faire parvenir un exemplaire. email us at general@lawfoundation.on.ca Please call (416) 598-1550 or DD LT HRQTHZD-N3 Print ad 6/6/08 8:54 AM Page 1 20 Queen Street West, Suite 3002, Box 19, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3R3 REACHING NEW HEIGHTS The business of printing solutions We're advancing to new levels in printing technology to offer our customers the highest quality and most diversified services. Watch for future details coming your way. *Dye & Durham is A Division of The Cartwright Group Ltd Dye & Durham is an FSC certified company making a commitment to responsible Forest Management dyedurham.ca • Phone: 1-888-393-3874 • Fax: 1-800-263-2772 www.lawtimesnews.com U C PREFERRED SUPPLIER work at the legal support centre, which also hired the clinic's in- take worker, who also worked as a Spanish translator. For Welikovitch, the reason for the exodus is clear. One of the lawyers left for a salary in- crease of about 45 per cent and the ministry pension. The other received a 35-per-cent salary in- crease, along with the pension. Welikovitch, who has been replacements for her lost lawyers in the summer months, when it is dif- ficult to get new people on board. She doesn't expect to have any new staff until the end of September. "That's left the community we She has been forced to search for t get up to speed in time. working in the legal aid system since 1987, says the pension is a big pull. Clinic lawyers must rely on self-directed RRSPs for retire- ment, and many long-term clinic staff can't afford to stop working when they would like to. Welikovitch says the clinic is re- ferring out at least five people each day, including clients the clinic has been retained to represent and who have hearings scheduled between now and the end of September. "It's been very stressful not just serve without the legal service it requires, and we're having to delay disability hearings, which means that people have to wait longer for their benefits," she says. Welikovitch says she normally gets about 125 applications for jobs when she posts available positions, but has so far received only 30 for the current vacancies at her clinic. She's twice had to extend the dead- line, and expects to further push it back. She says it has become pro- gressively more difficult to recruit staff to her clinic, and believes the only solution is an infusion of government cash. "The fact is that clinic positions are so non-compet- itive with every other sector that I'm aware of, that they're not considered attractive jobs to applicants." Abramowicz says the govern- ment has made a policy decision over the past decade to direct new funding to areas other than legal aid clinics. "When it decides to give the Crowns a 40-per-cent in- crease, as it did to some Crown po- sitions a couple of years ago, that's a policy decision," he says. "Sure it's negotiated and everything else, but at the end of the day they made the decision and didn't do the same on the clinic side." He says, "The government, unfortunately, over the years has made the decision that legal aid is not a priority. And that, long term, has an impact. It leads to diminu- tion of access to justice, and there's no way around that." He says, "It' for the rest of the staff here. It's been very stressful for the clients who had retained us and now find themselves without representa- tion," she says, adding that group consists of 22 clients. Human Rights Legal Support Cen- tre. That has just become the flash- point that has ignited the issue." Welikovitch is part of the steer- ing committee of the Ontario Association of Legal Aid Lawyers, and says the group has sched- uled a meeting with Attorney General Chris Bentley in Sep- tember to discuss "the impact of underfunding" on the clinic sys- tem. She says the discussion will involve talks about salaries. s not the fault of the LT E W e ' r e a D y C S a 8 I n E 9 H a p N d & 9 i R m a 1 C n D o a A n Y M

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