RSS FeedOntario AG responds to continuing Legal Aid boycott
The boycott of legal aid by the Criminal Lawyer’s Association continues. I reported a few days ago that the CLA would not endorse the government’s plan to inject $150 million into Legal Aid on the basis that the funds did not come close to making up for losses against inflation that criminal lawyers have endured since 1987 (among other reasons).
Below is the latest letter from Ontario’s Attorney General Chris Bentley in response to the CLA’s rejection of the plan.
—
Dear Member of the Bar:
As many of you know, legal aid has been an ongoing passion of mine, throughout my 25 years as a criminal defence lawyer and during my time in government. That’s why I was pleased to announce that the McGuinty government is investing $150 million over the next four years. This 21% increase to Legal Aid Ontario’s base funding means that Legal Aid Ontario will receive an additional $60 million in year four and every year thereafter. This investment means that the government’s contribution to Legal Aid will rise from $288 million per year to $348 million per year.
We understand that to get legal aid to a better place, we have to properly support lawyers.
This is the largest investment that the province has made since the beginning of legal aid. We are committed to ensuring that the poorest Ontarians get the legal support that they need, when they need it and in the way that they need it. I am confident that the Bar shares these goals. This investment will support poverty alleviation. It will also help drive significant reforms in our family and criminal courts—which will themselves help Ontarians needing assistance.
The transformation plan targets four key areas: creating a central role for legal aid clinics in poverty alleviation; fostering a faster, less confrontational and simpler family justice system; promoting justice effectiveness through the use of block fees; and improving the approach to big cases.
The members of the Bar, including the Alliance for Sustainable Legal Aid, asked us for two things: an additional investment and an assurance that they would not simply be presented with a reform plan that was a fait accompli. As a result, we will immediately establish an Advisory Group in each of five areas: family, clinics, large criminal case management, standard criminal cases and immigration law. Your advice as front-line service providers, on the advisory groups will inform how best to achieve our mutual goals.
There are a few parts of our announcement that I would like to clarify:
- We have been explicitly given direction to develop and seek approval of an indexation mechanism. This has always been part of our legal aid renewal plan. The implementation would take place in 2013 (our investment rises every year until then);
- We understand that appropriate support is required for service providers to assist Ontario’s vulnerable and are open to the Advisory Working Group’s advice on the best way to provide that support so that we get experienced counsel in family and criminal matters. There was a specific commitment to look at models such as the British Columbia big case model if the advisory group so advised;
- This historic investment in legal aid is not the government’s “opening proposal” as some have suggested. This is the single largest increase to legal aid funding ever in Ontario. In fact, it is one of the largest single justice sector investments in history. The discussion from here forward needs to be about how to make the funding work as well as possible; an over 20% increase to LAO’s base budget is unprecedented and significant in the best of times. It is extraordinary in these times.
- The Major Case Management Office is being created to provide the required accountability and quality control that the Bar has supported. The government is responsible to ensure that cases progress and that the rights of the accused are protected.
- Legal Aid is responsible to ensure that the accused who need counsel to defend themselves on serious charges but cannot afford them have access to counsel. To the extent that members of the private bar remain unavailable to do these cases, a large case office will have to develop the permanent capacity to do them. The capacity and role of this office, will, therefore, depend, on the availability of private counsel.
We are committed to a legal aid system that provides support to Ontarians when they are at their most vulnerable. This investment will ensure that a vibrant legal aid system is able to assist those in need, now and in the future.
Sincerely,
[Original Signed By Hon. Chris Bentley]
Hon. Chris Bentley
Attorney General
Legal Aid boycott to continue
I spoke too soon when I congratulated the Criminal Lawyers Association on convincing Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley to boost funding to Legal Aid Ontario to the tune of $150-million over the next four years.
It turns out that the battle will be continuing. Despite the funding boost, the Criminal Lawyers Association board has voted in favour of maintaining the boycott of legal aid.
Frank Addario, President of the CLA, argues that the cash infusion is merely a stop-gap measure which does not address the underlying concerns of the criminal defence bar. In a communique to Association members, Addario pointed out that when broken down, legal aid lawyers would be receiving a raise of 5% or less over the next four years.
This wouldn’t come close to correcting the income disparity between legal aid lawyers and Crown attorneys. It also wouldn’t address the many years of funding freeze and funding rollback that sparked the boycott in the first place. Addario explains:
If the population, the crime rate, the complexity of cases and inflation all remain stable in the next 4 years a 20% increase in funding will not eliminate the 60% loss against inflation since 1987.
Besides the money, there were other important reasons for the board’s decision to maintain the boycott. Expect a formal announcement later this week or next.
Habeas corpus
Province pays $2,000 each to nine denied prompt bail hearings
The raid was meticulously planned and involved some 1,200 officers, but organizers overlooked one salient factor – ensuring Toronto’s bail courts were prepared for the crush of detainees.
It’s Official: E-Laws Printouts are Good Law!
Mr. Wisdom has pointed out how reliant we soon-to-be-lawyers are on technology. I, like him, cannot imagine living without CanLII, electronic library catalogs, and e-laws.
However, there has always been an undercurrent of resistance to technology from the old school bar that somehow – incredibly in my eyes – manages to get by just fine without electronic legal resources. For a long time, printouts of electronic case law and legislation have not been acceptable for use in court.
The general rule was that printouts are unacceptable or at least frowned-upon, especially in Superior Court proceedings, though some leeway was occasionally granted in the interests of expedience.
I am extremely happy today to report that the general rule is changing.
Ontario was the first province to begin publishing its laws online. That happened back in 2001 with the launch of e-laws. That was a progressive move to help make the law more accessible to the public, and indeed, to help keep lawyers up to date on changes that could take time to get published in print.
As of November 30, 2008, the government has gone a step further.
According to a MAG press release, copies of regulations and statutes published on e-laws will now be an official source of law.
Both of the following are official:
- An on-screen display of a statute or regulation viewed on, or downloaded from, the e-Laws website
- A printout of a statute or regulation viewed on, or downloaded from, the e-Laws website.
According to Ontario’s Attorney General, Chris Bentley (a fellow Londoner):
“E-Laws provides Ontarians with easy access to Ontario’s laws. Making e-Laws an official source of law recognizes the reality of today’s modern technological environment. Eliminating our reliance on printed publications not only makes the law more accessible but does so in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way.”
These changes were made pursuant to a new regulation under the Legislation Act, 2006, [S.O. 2006, c. 21, Sch. F].
Ironically, the regulation (presumably under s. 41(1)) is too new to have been published on the E-Laws website just yet. I haven’t been able to find it!
Ontario Expands “Justice on Target” Initiative
According to the Ontario Attorney General’s website:
In 1992, it took an average of 4.3 court appearances to bring a charge to completion. By last year, this figure had more than doubled to 9.2 appearances. Over the same period, the average time needed to complete a charge has gone from 115 days to 205 days.
One of AG Chris Bentley’s prime initiatives during his office has been to address these delays in the criminal justice system.
Bentley is the Liberal M.P.P. for my riding of London West. Because of his personal knowledge of our court’s delays, Bentley made London the testing ground for his “Justice on Target” program. The program aims to identify bottlenecks and address them to reduce the number of adjournments and the amount of time it takes for criminal cases to be resolved.
The Ministry of the Attorney General has issued the following (slightly edited) press release today:
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Accelerating The Pace Of Justice
McGuinty Government Selects Three Courthouses For Next Phase Of Justice On Target Strategy
NEWS
The Ontario Courts of Justice in Newmarket, North York and London have been chosen to begin the province’s intensive, sustained effort to move cases through the justice system faster.
This is the next step in the Justice on Target strategy , to reduce unproductive criminal court delays and appearances by making more effective use of justice resources.
These courthouses have been designated as “action sites” to improve the pace of justice. Teams, led by Regional Senior Justice Bruce Durno and Senior Crown Attorney Ken Anthony, will work to quickly identify, test and implement new ideas.
Successful initiatives will then be rolled out in other courthouses across the province to help achieve the target of a 30 per cent reduction in the provincial average of days and court appearances needed to complete a criminal case. Progress towards the targets in each courthouse will be measured and reported online.
QUOTE
“Our expert teams will be working closely with all justice participants in these three courthouses initially – but the goal is to identify, test and implement approaches that will make criminal justice faster province-wide,” said Attorney General Chris Bentley. “We’re committed to making the justice system more effective for everyone – victims, witnesses, and the public who pay for it.”
QUICK FACT
* With 600,000 charges entering the system every year, saving one minute per charge could save seven years of court time.
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My personal London criminal justice pet peeve: simple disclosure requests that take six months to fulfill.
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