A profile of legal aid services in family law matters in Canada

With the termination of the Canada Assistance Plan and the adoption of the Canada Health and Social Transfer on April 1, 1996, the federal government contribution to civil legal aid is now part of a block grant to the provinces/territories and there is no longer any specific earmarking of funds for civil legal aid cases (Johnstone and Thomas, 1998). [...] A review of Domestic Legal Aid, conducted in 1992 jointly by the Department of Justice and the Law Society of New Brunswick, found that services and coverage were seriously deficient, with costs becoming unmanageable, and the Department of Justice proposed the creation of a new Domestic Legal Aid service that would be staffed by contracted lawyers (Department of Justice and Legal Aid New Brunswick [...] In 1993, a portion of Domestic Legal Aid became part of the Family Support Services provided by the Court Services Division of the Department of Justice, and would include, for the first time, the services of Court Social Workers trained to screen for domestic abuse, provide paralegal support for the contract lawyers, and offer mediation to clients who were not victims of abuse. [...] Reputed income is calculated by summing 100 percent of the income in excess of the cut-off, 10 percent of property in excess of the cut-off, and 100 percent of liquid assets in excess of the cut-off. [...] In 1999, the Board of Legal Aid Ontario approved a number of service improvements in an attempt to enhance accessibility to legal aid in the province.