Fate of legal aid office could be grim

The future of a legal agency that provides criminal representation for Ottawa residents could be decided within the next year.

Ontario Criminal Law Offices (CLOs) have been assisting financially eligible clients in Ottawa, Barrie, and Brampton as part of a three-year pilot project.  Extending past the three-year project, CLOs are still currently operating.

“This includes people with mental health issues, youths and aboriginals,” says Kristian Justesen, manager of communications and public affairs in Legal Aid Ontario. “It really contributes to providing service for people who may have otherwise shown up in court unrepresented.”

The CLOs were meant to supplement the private legal sector.

“Since their inception, the Criminal Law Offices have provided a valuable service to over 2,300 clients in the three communities that they operate,” says Justensen. “It has helped to contribute to a more fair and effective judicial process.”

Since the pilot project began in 2004, with the help of the federal government under its Investment Fund for Criminal Aid Renewal, Legal Aid Ontario has put out annual progress evaluations made available on its website.

“We're responsible for transparency and accountability for these public funds, and that's what we've done,” says Justesen.

The final evaluation came out in April 2008.  Justesen says there have been good findings as well as bad findings in the evaluation, but they are taking them all into consideration.

People in need of financial assistance for criminal law representation can apply through the government for a certificate. These certificates accord people free legal aid and can currently be used through a CLO. The lawyer banks hours to the certificate, which are then paid for by the general legal aid fund. However, this service is also provided by the private sector.

CLOs were created because there was a suggestion there was a need which wasn't being met by the private bar, says Ken Hall, co-chair of the legal aid comity of the County and District Law Presidents' Association (CDLPA). He says in actuality, this gave the private sector competition.

The CDLPA did an analysis of the CLOs final report and concluded the money is not being appropriately spent. While CDLPA agrees with the concept of providing better access to justice for Ontario citizens, it says the operation of CLOs is too expensive and provides only a limited increase in access. For example, the CDLPA says that the private bar can complete almost 15 times as many cases as the CLOs in Ottawa for the same amount of money. This number is even higher in other areas.

“The Hann and Associates Third Year Report validates our contention that the CLO expenditures are 55 per cent to 66 per cent more costly than the private bar on a cost per file closed basis,” says the CDLPA's Analysis of Cost Effectiveness of Criminal Law Offices in Ontario.

However, Justesen cautions against making these kinds of comparisons, which he says is like comparing apples and oranges.

“I would caution anyone against selectively choosing information from inside the evaluation that we put out. Any analysis of the data needs to be taken in the context of the whole report,” he says. “A simple comparison between CLOs and private bar may be inappropriately misleading.”

The CDLPA has been an important contributor of information for the CLOs right from the beginning, says Justesen. He says Legal Aid Ontario used its evaluation as a point of discussion in provincial-wide consultations in 2008 regarding the CLOs.

“We've gathered information from a number of stakeholders, such as members of the private bar, other service provider agencies,” he says. “What we're doing now is we're actively analyzing that feedback to figure out what our next steps are going to be with the CLOs. We hope to be making a recommendation to our board in the next year.”

While the CDLPA isn't advocating for the CLOs to be closed, they don't think any more should be created. They also don't think the CLOs should take on any more certificates, says Hall.

“It costs the taxpayer more when they take a certificate case as opposed to when the private bill does,” he says.

Halls says the private bill would have no problem taking on the extra case load and the CLOs could instead focus on what they do well. They do an excellent job educating people about the court system, he says.