Legal aid across the provinces

[StephenToast]

Soon-to-be 1L here. Gauging from the collective wisdom of the forum, it seems like if I were to go solo as a criminal defense lawyer, a good chunk of my clients, at least in my early years, will be legal aid files.

I've heard many horror stories and complaints about Ontario legal aid, but what about the other provinces? Is there a particular province/territory where it would be easier for a new call to live on legal aid?

Edited June 10, 2021 by StephenToast

[Hegdis]

In BC we have quite a different system - any lawyer can sign up to receive legal aid clients. But you still have to go find them: they seldom get assigned to you.

It's not a good living. 

[Diplock]

No one gets assigned legal aid clients in Ontario either. Just FYI. I've heard there are more remote communities in Ontario where the list of lawyers accepting certificates is small enough that clients do effectively just come to you by virtue of being one of the few places to go, but being in the GTA myself my experience is very different. Based on what Hegdis is saying, however, the basic dynamic is the same. And it's a dynamic I support, btw, as do virtually all lawyers that I know. A client receiving Legal Aid should still have choice of counsel. Denying that would be horrible.

The real question is how the system compensates the lawyer accepting the Legal Aid client. I don't know the BC system well enough to contrast it with Ontario. I've heard lawyers complain about it bitterly, but then I've heard the same in Ontario, so who really knows. Whether something is a "good" living or not depends very significantly on expectations. Certainly anyone comparing the income on Legal Aid clients to what you could make on private retainers is going to be disappointed. As would anyone comparing it to "big law" or many other areas of practice. But I don't know anyone with a busy practice who isn't making a reasonable, middle-class income. The key word here is "busy." You do still need to attract the clients. No one hands them to you.

Note, the real alternative to a certificate system is one where Legal Aid has full time staff lawyers doing the work. I don't support that model, personally, but the lawyers in that system are also making a perfectly reasonable living.

Hope that helps.

[StephenToast]

Oops, I realized that I did not phrase my question well. What I meant to ask was: Is there a province that funds legal aid well enough, such that there are enough legal aid certificates to go around for a new call to have a relatively easy time to survive?

[PCCL]

I think Diplock covers this - it's less about which province you're in and more about where you are in said province. Same in BC, in the GVA, you're gonna have a hard time as a new call solo defense lawyer. If you go farther up north, say Kamloops or Prince George, you'll have more clients. You might have even more luck in even smaller communities like Vanderhoof or Quesnel. 

I suspect the same goes for other provinces as well so... the answer is probably all of them? Or none of them? Depending on how set you are on staying in the big cities.

[123]

24 minutes ago, StephenToast said:

a relatively easy time to survive?

As with "good living" in Diplock's post, define "relatively easy time to survive".

I have a largely LAO based practice. It's now busy enough that I can pay my bills, save some money, pay down debt, and still have spending money left over. I'm still very junior.

For the first few months, it wasn't that way. Starting out, I wasn't well-known enough that there was a lot of volume. And even beyond low referrals/intakes, when every file is new and requires a lot of research and attention, they all take so long to do properly that you lose money under the legal aid tariffs.  So at that point, no, it wasn't an easy time to survive financially. But I'm not sure "ease" is a realistic goal for a new practitioner. The government isn't going to design a system that makes it easy to serve impoverished clients as a new practitioner. It's going to be difficult, and you should expect to struggle, especially if you have monthly payments on debt, higher rent etc. 

Difficult doesn't necessarily mean impossible, though. I got through it. And I'm not particularly special, so if I could do it, I imagine others can as well. But you will likely struggle at some point in an LAO practice. 

[Phaedrus]

The survivability on legal aid certificates is, in part, dependent on your income arrangement (solo, salaried, fee-split) and your ability to both manage high case loads and strategically schedule matters without overwhelming yourself.

For instance, I'm aware that NS certificates pay $60 to $70 per hour for new calls. If you're on fee split, you're down to earning $30-35 per hour. The certificate itself may cap the max hours claimable (for example, Cannabis Act charges cap out at two hours, hardly enough time to review disclosure and meet with your client). As an early call, you can expect blowing last those hours as you study and prepare your way into practising competence.  The "value" of the $35 and hour, after you take into account the unpaid work, will drop. 

However, taking on multiple certificates and having arraignments on the same day can help logistical and economic efficiency. Others can speak to the viability of going solo criminal fresh out of the gate, but my understanding is that it's tough to do solely criminal outside of major metropolitan centres (500k+ population). Many solo's have smaller transaction practices to help float income. 

It might be wise to work out your monthly cost of living, including debt obligations, and then how you define "make a good living" (as per Diplock's response). The arithmetic is pretty straight forward to determine how many certificate hours you need to bill to get by. 

In short, though, it's an incredibly tough go for anyone going solo straight out of articles.