Legal Aid in Canada, 2018-19

List of tables

• Table 1 – Legal aid plan revenues, by type of revenue, annual, 2018-19
• Table 2a – Legal aid plan expenditures, by type of expenditure, 2018-19
• Table 2b – Total legal aid plan administrative costs, 2018-19
• Table 3 – Legal aid service delivery by private bar, staff, and other lawyers, 2018-19
• Table 4 – Legal aid plan personnel as of March 31, 2018-19
• Table 5 – Legal aid applications received, by type of matter, 2018-19
• Table 6 – Approved legal aid applications for full legal representation, by staff and private lawyers, annual, 2018-19
• Table 7 – Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, all legal aid matters, 2018-19
• Table 8 – Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, criminal matters, 2018-19
• Table 9 – Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, civil matters, 2018-19
• Table 10 – Applications for full legal representation, approved and refused, by self-identified Indigenous status, type of matter, and province/territory, 2018-19
• Table 11 – Duty counsel services, by type of matter, 2018-19
• Table 12 – Duty counsel service expenditures, by type of matter, 2018-19
• Table 13 – Appeal applications, approved and refused for legal aid services, by criminal and civil matters, 2018-19
• Table 14 – Incoming and outgoing civil legal aid cases processed under the interprovincial reciprocity agreement, 2018-19
• Table 15 – Legal aid clients, by age, gender, and type of matter, Canada, 2018-19
• Table 16 – Indigenous legal aid clients receiving full legal represenation and summary services by gender and type of matter, 2018-19
• Table 17 – Criminal legal aid cases by type of offence and in year expenditures, adult, Canada, 2018-19
• Table 18 – Criminal legal aid cases by type of offence and in year expenditures, youth, Canada, 2018-19
• Table 19 – Immigration and refugee legal aid certificates and expenditures, by province/territory and type of lawyer, 2018-19
• Table 20 – Specialized courts by province/territory and type of legal aid service delivery, 2018-19
• Table 21 – Legal aid program innovations
  • Prince Edward Island
  • Nova Scotia
  • New Brunswick
  • Quebec
  • Ontario
  • Manitoba
  • Saskatchewan
  • Alberta
  • British Columbia
  • Yukon
  • Northwest Territories

Legal Aid in Canada, 2018-19

Access to justice is a key issue facing all stakeholders in the justice system. Legal aid services support access to justice for those who are economically disadvantaged and unable to pay for a lawyer on their own.

The federal government supports legal aid services in the provinces and territories through two sources. The Department of Justice Canada’s (JUS) Legal Aid Program provides funding to all provinces for criminal legal aid through contribution agreements. These agreements also support immigration and refugee (I&R) legal aid in the six provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Quebec) that provide services in this area. The federal government supports criminal and civil legal aid in the territories through consolidated access to justice services agreements.

The Department of Finance Canada’s Canada Social Transfer (CST) is a block transfer payment provided to each province and territory for provincial health care, post-secondary education, social assistance and social services. Civil legal aid is an eligible expenditure under the CST.^{Footnote 1}

While policies related to criminal legal aid are a shared federal/provincial/territorial responsibility, each province and territory is responsible for the delivery of legal aid services based on their own policies and procedures.

Provinces and territories contributed close to three quarters of legal aid revenues in 2018-19

Legal aid plans are the organizations responsible for providing legal aid services to those who cannot afford a lawyer. There are 13 recognized legal aid plans in Canada. Legal aid plans reported receiving total funding of more than $1 billion in 2018-19. Federal and provincial/territorial government sources contributed the majority of this amount—89% of the total. The remaining funding was received from client contributions, cost recoveries from legal settlements, and contributions from the legal profession and other sources (Table 1).

Provincial and territorial (P/T) governments directly fund legal aid. In 2018-19, provincial and territorial governments contributed more than $748 million to legal aid plans across Canada, which amounts to 74% of total legal aid revenues.

In 2018-19, JUS contributed more than $152 million to the provinces and territories for the delivery of criminal legal aid, civil legal aid (in the territories), and I&R legal aid (where applicable). This amounts to 15% of total legal aid revenues (Table 1). Ontario and Quebec were the largest legal aid plans, comprising 49% and 18% of all legal aid plan revenues respectively, or 67% for the two plans combined (Table 1).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

A majority of jurisdictions spend more on criminal matters than civil matters

Table 2a shows 2018-19 legal aid plan expenditures, broken down by type of expenditure. Overall, 48% of legal aid expenditures were related to criminal matters, 6% were related to I&R matters, and 45% were related to all other civil matters. Ontario and Quebec had the highest legal aid expenditures in the country, with 50% of all expenditures as a proportion of the national total from Ontario and 18% from Quebec.

Looking at legal aid expenditures by jurisdiction, just three jurisdictions (Quebec, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island) spend more on civil matters than criminal matters. The fact that less than half of legal aid expenditures are related to criminal law at the national level is driven by lower prevalence Quebec and Ontario. These two provinces have the largest populations, and spend more overall -- contributing more to the average. The jurisdictions with the highest proportion of total legal aid expenditures on criminal matters (of all legal aid expenditures for that jurisdiction) were Saskatchewan (77%), and Manitoba (72%).

Table 2b breaks out the total administrative costs for legal aid plans in 2018-19. These expenses are also reflected under ‘legal aid plan expenditures’ in table 2a, and they amounted to over $175 million dollars.

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Legal aid services are delivered primarily by private bar lawyers

Table 3 provides an overview of the proportion of staff lawyers versus private bar lawyers delivering services at legal aid plans. It is not intended to represent the case loads of the private bar versus staff lawyers. In some cases a legal aid plan may have a higher proportion of private bar lawyers, but the staff lawyers at that plan may be managing a higher proportion of cases. Looking at the breakdown of legal aid service delivery by type of lawyer, in 2018-19, 89% of the over 11,000 lawyers providing legal aid services in Canada were private bar lawyers (Table 3). Staff lawyers made up 10% of lawyers providing direct legal aid services to clients and other lawyers (such as Executive Directors) made up 1%.

Among private bar lawyers, 47% provided both criminal and civil law services. There were roughly equal proportions of private bar lawyers providing only criminal law services or only civil law services (24% and 23%). Of the staff lawyers, the highest proportion provided both criminal and civil law services (69%), while 17% provided only criminal services and 5% provided only civil law services.

Overall, 31% of the 11,820 lawyers providing legal aid services in Canada were in Ontario, and 26% were in Alberta. When looking at the breakdown between private and staff lawyers within each province/territory, Alberta and British Columbia had the highest proportions of private bar lawyers (97% and 97%), while Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon had the highest proportions of staff lawyers (70% and 58%) (Table 3).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Non-lawyers made up 15% of legal aid plan personnel

Legal aid plans employ a variety of non-lawyer personnel to support the delivery of legal aid services to clients. While lawyers made up 85% of legal aid plan personnel, non-lawyers made up the other 15% (Table 4).

Of the 1,967 non-lawyers working for legal aid plans, the most common were support staff (57%), while intake workers (25%), legal assistants (12%), and articling students (3%) were the next most common types of non-lawyer personnel. ‘Other’ (i.e. managers) (2%) and paralegals (1%) made up the remaining personnel (Table 4).

- Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Over 593,000 legal aid applications were received in 2018-19

When looking at applications for legal aid, the number of applications reflects the number of individual requests for assistance, rather than the total number of persons seeking assistance – this means that a single individual could file multiple applications. Of the 593,676 applications for summary or full legal representation received in 2018-19, over half (54%) were for criminal matters, while 45% were for civil matters (including I&R). The highest proportion of civil matter applications was for family matters (44%), followed by child protection (22%), non-family matters (21%), and 12% for I&R. Of the 318,039 applications for criminal legal aid, 92% were from adults and 7% were from youth (remaining 1% is from uncategorized data from NU) (Table 5).

Quebec received the most applications at 264,498, which accounted for 45% of all applications received nationally in 2018-19. Ontario and Alberta were the next two provinces that received the most applications (21% and 9% respectively). Looking at the breakdown between criminal and civil applications within each province/territory, Nunavut (80%) and Yukon (73%), had the highest proportion of criminal applications compared to civil. Quebec (54%) and New Brunswick (50%) had the lowest proportion of criminal applications compared to civil.

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

More than eight in ten legal aid applications received were approved for full legal representation

An application for legal aid may be approved for either summary or full legal representation. Summary services include the provision of legal advice, information, or any other type of minimal legal service granted to an individual during a formal interview. Full legal representation represents more extensive legal assistance. Applications not approved for full legal representation may receive summary services instead. Out of the 593,676 applications received in 2018-19 (table 5), 482,279 applications, or 81%, were approved for full service (table 6).

Table 6 shows the number of approved applications for full legal representation. In 2018-19, there were 482,279 applications approved for full legal representation; 56% of these were for criminal legal aid, 43% were for civil legal aid (including I&R), and the remainder for provincial/territorial offences. Of the criminal applications, the majority (90%) were for adult matters, and 9% were for youth matters (the remaining 1% is uncategorized data from Yukon). For civil matters, more than a third (39%) were for family matters, 26% were for child protection matters, and 20% were for other civil matters. I&R matters made up 15% of civil applications in the provinces that provide I&R legal aid services.

When looking at the proportion of approved applications by province/territory and type of matter, Nunavut (81%), Prince Edward Island (78%) and Manitoba (78%) had the highest proportion of approved applications that were criminal as opposed to civil. New Brunswick had a similar proportion of criminal and civil legal aid applications approved for full legal representation at 54% approved applications that were criminal.

In Ontario there were 2,611 adult and 150 youth applications managed by law clinics, which made up 4% of Ontario’s total approved criminal applications.

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Financial ineligibility was the most common reason for application refusal

Refused applications refer to all requests for legal aid that have been denied legal services. This includes applications for which no services have been approved, as well as those applications denied for full legal representation that subsequently receive summary services. Overall, of the 97,023 applications (both criminal and civil) where a reason for refusal was reported, 55% were refused for financial ineligibility. ‘Coverage restrictions’ and ‘other reasons for refusal’ were the next most common reasons for refusal (20%, and 20% respectively) (Table 7).

When looking at the breakdown of reasons for refusal by province/territory, Prince Edward Island and Quebec had the highest proportions of applications refused for financial ineligibility (90% and 78%). Newfoundland and Labrador (50%) and New Brunswick (45%) had the highest proportions of applications refused for coverage restrictions.

– Refers to data that is not available or that was not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Just over half of refused criminal legal aid applications were refused for financial ineligibility

When looking specifically at refused criminal legal aid applications, financial ineligibility remained the most common reason for refusal (55%), followed by coverage restrictions at 19% (Table 8). By province/territory, Nunavut and Quebec had the highest proportion of financial ineligibility refusals (100% and 88%), Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest proportion of coverage restriction refusals (63%), Yukon had the highest proportion of lack of merit refusals (36%), and Nova Scotia had the highest rate of refusal of all jurisdictions for non-compliance or abuse, at 18%.

– Refers to data that is not available or that was not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Table 9 shows refused civil and I&R applications by reasons for refusal. The proportions remained consistent with criminal applications, with 56% of applications nationwide refused for financial ineligibility, and 19% falling under coverage restrictions. Prince Edward Island and Quebec had the highest proportions of ‘other civil’ applications refused for financial ineligibility (72% and 72%). Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest proportion of ‘other civil’ applications refused for coverage restrictions (41%), and Yukon and Manitoba had the highest proportion of ‘other civil’ applications refused for lack of merit (30% and 28%). For I&R applications, Quebec had the highest proportion refused for financial ineligibility (82%), Alberta had the highest proportion refused for coverage restrictions (31%), and Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest proportion refused for lack of merit (56%) (Table 9).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

More than 8 in 10 applications for full legal representation from self-identified Indigenous clients were approved

Table 10 shows applications for full legal representation from individuals who self-identified as Indigenous in the provinces and territories that collect this data. Of the 62,706 applications received for all matters, 82% were approved. This proportion was similar among both criminal and civil applications, with 83% of criminal and 78% of civil applications approved. By jurisdiction, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island had the highest proportions of criminal appliations approved (99% and 97%), while Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba had the lowest (63% and 64%). For civil applications, Nova Scotia and Ontairo had the highest proportions of applications approved (90% and 88%), while Prince Edward Island and British Columbia had the lowest (62% and 65%).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Over 1.2 million duty counsel assists were provided in 2018-19

Duty counsel is legal assistance rendered without charge to unrepresented individuals who, in many cases, are about to make an appearance in court. Duty counsel services refer to services provided by a lawyer at a location other than a legal aid office, generally at court or a place of detention. Most often, the services provided are brief, and pertain to provision of summary services, docket court appearances, or representation at a first appearance or plea court.

As a result of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. Brydges, all provinces and territories offer temporary access to duty counsel through telephone in the immediate period after an accused has been arrested or detained. These services are provided to accused persons without application, and they are free of charge.

For criminal matters, duty counsel services (either Brydges telephone services or in person court services) are available in all provinces and territories. Civil duty counsel services are available in six provinces: Newoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia (NS offers family duty counsel, which is referred to as summary advice counsel), New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba (for child protection matters), and British Columbia; while I&R duty counsel services are available in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and British Columbia.

A majority of provinces and territories do not apply eligibility criteria for duty counsel services. Of those that do, New Brunswick applies a scope of service eligibility criteria, but not a financial eligibility critieria,^{Footnote 2} while Ontario applies eligibility criteria which are outlined on their website.^{Footnote 3} British Columbia applies eligibility criteria only to family duty counsel services.^{Footnote 4}

Eleven jurisdictions provided data on the number of duty counsel services provided to clients in 2018-19 (Table 11). There were 1,229,291 duty counsel assists provided to legal aid clients in these jurisdictions. A total of 83% of these assists were for criminal matters, and 17% were for civil matters (including I&R).

For jurisdictions that provided data on both criminal and civil duty counsel services, Quebec and Prince Edward Island had the highest proportions of criminal duty counsel assists provided, both with 100% of duty counsel assists for criminal matters. British Columbia had the lowest proportion of criminal matter assists, with 76% criminal assists and 24% civil.

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.
^P – Count is by number of persons assisted.
^A – Count is by number of assists – this refers to the number of times duty counsel was provided for each category of service provided for adult and youth criminal legal aid, provincial statute offences, I &R and civil legal aid.

Over 89 million dollars of expenditures on duty counsel services in 2018-19

Nationally, there were total expenditures of $89,204,640 for duty counsel services in 2018-19. The highest proportion of duty counsel expenditures were for criminal duty counsel services, at $63,755,204, or 71% of total expenditures in 2018-19. Civil duty counsel services made up 29% of expenditures. Within criminal duty counsel services, 96% of expenditures went towards adult matters (Table 12).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Almost three quarters of applications for legal aid services to deal with an appeal were approved

Out of the 6,626 applications for legal aid services for an appeal case, almost three quarters were approved for legal aid services (71%). For criminal matters, 63% were approved, and for civil matters more than three quarters (77%) were approved (Table 13).

Aside from Saskatchewan and Northwest Territories, where all appeal applications were approved in 2018-19, Ontario and Nova Scotia had the highest proportion of appeal cases approved for legal aid services (86% and 85%), while Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest proportion of cases approved (42%). For criminal cases, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia had the highest proportion of appeal cases approved (100% and 98%) and British Columbia had the lowest (26%). For civil cases, Ontario had the highest proportion of cases approved (91%), and New Brunswick had the lowest (25%) (Table 13).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Approximately 600 civil cases were managed under the interprovincial reciprocity agreement in 2018-19

The interprovincial reciprocity agreement refers to an agreement among legal aid plans in Canada to handle non-resident civil cases. Under the terms of the new 2018 agreement, it is no longer a requirement for an applicant to apply in their home province, applications may be made directly to the province where service is required.

Outgoing cases refer to the number of applications for civil legal aid approved by the legal aid plan of a province or territory that are forwarded to other P/T legal aid plans for service. Incoming cases refer to the number of applications approved for civil legal aid by other provincial/territorial legal aid plans which are forwarded to the legal aid plan for service and for which service has been provided.

Data from 2018-19 indicate that provinces/territories handled a total a total of 594 incoming cases and 666 outgoing cases (Table 14). Ontario had the highest number of cases incoming from another province, with 235 cases. Ontario also had the highest number of outgoing cases, with 265 cases where the service was provided by legal aid lawyers in another province or territory.

The highest proportion of legal aid clients were male, and accessed criminal legal aid services

As shown in Table 15, overall, 61% of legal aid clients were male, while 39% were female. For criminal matters, the proportion of males was even higher (78%). For I&R matters, 62% of clients were male and 38% were female. However where an I&R matter relates to a principal legal aid applicant with family, only the principal applicant is counted as a client which may result in an undercount of females with I&R matters. For civil matters, a majority of clients were female (64%).

Overall, the most common age category was 18-34 (44%). This trend appears to be the same for males, females and others in all types of matters (criminal, I&R, and civil), with the exception of males in civil matters. For this group, the most common age category was 35-49 (32%). For male criminal legal aid clients, the most common age group was 18-34 (50%), followed by 35-49 (30%). The same pattern was true for female criminal legal aid clients, with the most common age group being 18-34 (53%) followed by 35-49 (29%).

For I&R legal aid, most male clients were in the 18-34 and 35-49 age groups (44% and 43%). The same was true for female clients, with 42% in the 18-34 age group, and 41% in the 35-49 age group. For civil legal aid, male clients were most often in the 35-49 and 18-34 age groups (31% and 25%); female clients were most often in the 18-34 and 35-49 age groups (40% and 33%) (Table 15).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

^*cell count under 5 supressed.

More than half of Indigenous legal aid clients were males accessing criminal legal aid services

Legal aid plans from Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Northwest Territories provided data on self-identified Indigenous legal aid clients. Out of a total of 47,559 Indigenous clients that self-identified in these provinces and territories in 2018-19, 71% accessed criminal legal aid (adult and youth), while 23% accessed civil legal aid. The highest proportion of clients were male adults, accessing criminal legal aid services (52%) (Table 16).

A majority of Indigenous adult and youth criminal legal aid clients were male (80%). In civil cases, there were about twice as many female Indigenous clients as male (66% versus 32%).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

^*cell count under 5 supressed.

Legal aid cases for assault were the most frequent offence category, with the highest proportion of in-year expenditures for adult criminal legal aid

Table 17 provides a breakdown of criminal legal aid cases that were approved for full legal representation, and incurred expenditures in 2018-19 in addition to cases that were ongoing from previous years and incurred expenditures in 2018-19. These are broken down by general offence categories, as well as the proportion of in-year expenditures dedicated to each offence category. Note that the offence categories do not refer to specific offences under the Criminal Code, rather, they represent groupings of similar offence types.

The category ‘other offences’ made up the highest proportion of both case volume and in-year expenditures, at 27% of cases, and 22% of in-year expenditures in 2018-19. Among more specific offence categories, assault (18% of case volume and 17% of in-year expenditures) and ‘theft, break and enter, possession of stolen property’ (17% of case volume and 13% of in-year expenditures) were the most frequent types of legal aid cases.

There were a few categories of offences that made up a very small proportion of case volumes, but a comparatively a higher proportion of in-year expenditures. These included homicide, which accounted for 0.6% of cases, but 12% of in-year expenditures; sexual assault which made up 3% of case volume and 7% of expenditures, and robbery cases which each made up 2% of the case volume, but 5% of expenditures (Table 16).

Legal aid cases for assault were the most frequent offence category, with the highest proportion of in-year expenditures for youth criminal legal aid

Table 18 provides a breakdown of current youth legal aid cases and incurred expenditures in 2018-19 in addition to cases that were ongoing and incurring expenditures but might have been approved the previous fiscal year or earlier. These are broken down by general offence categories, as well as the proportion of in-year expenditures dedicated to each offence category. Note that the offence categories do not refer to specific offences under the Criminal Code, rather, they represent groupings of similar offence types.

‘Other offences’ made up the highest proportion of case volume (39%) and the highest proportion of in-year expenditures (26%), while assault made up 18% of cases, and 19% of in-year expenditures in 2018-19. ‘Theft, break and enter, possession of stolen property’ was the next most common offence category with 14% of case volume and 12% of in-year expenditures.

There were a few categories of offences that made up a very small proportion of case volume, but a comparatively higher proportion of in-year expenditures. These included homicide, which accounted for 0.4% of cases, but 9% of in-year expenditures and sexual assault, which accounted for 5% of cases but 8% of in-year expenditures. (Table 18).

Over 41,000 immigration and refugee legal aid certificates were issued in 2018-19

Refugee claimants have the right, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), to be represented at immigration and refugee proceedings. Through the Legal Aid Program, the federal government contributes annual funding to the six provinces that provide I&R legal aid services (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Quebec). I&R matters refer to proceedings of persons (individuals, or principal applicants and family) involved in the immigration and refugee determination system under the provisions of IRPA. I&R legal aid covers the provision of legal advice, assistance and representation for immigration or refugee proceedings before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, the Federal Court , or Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada officials on post-determination actions.

Table 19 shows the volume of I&R legal aid certificates as well as expenditures for I&R legal aid for 2018-19, including certificates carried over from previous fiscal years for cases that are ongoing. In 2018-19, there were 41,109 legal aid certificates issued, with 5,465^{Footnote 5} certificates carried over from previous fiscal years, in the provinces that reported this data, for a total of 46,574 certificates . A majority of (current and previous fiscal year) certificates were handled by private bar lawyers (70%), while 26% were handled in specialized clinics, and 3% were handled by staff lawyers. The majority of expenditures related to I&R legal aid (75%) were associated with private bar certificates.

Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta had the highest proportion of staff lawyers working on I&R matters (100% and 57%), while British Columbia has a model with 100% private bar lawyers handling I&R legal aid. Ontario had the highest proportion of cases handled through specialized clinics (34%) (Table 19).

– Refers to data that were not available or that were not provided by the jurisdiction as reported in the Statement of Final Claim.

Specialized Courts

Specialized or problem-solving courts focus on a particular type of offence or offender. They typically involve an interdisciplinary team that is focused on addressing the underlying causes of offending.^{Footnote 6} The following section provides information on the specialized courts operating in Canada. Table 20 provides an overview of the service delivery models available at specialized courts across Canada.

Mental Health/Wellness/Community Courts

Mental health courts are designed to assist accused persons who have mental health issues. This typically involves specially trained personnel and processes that take into consideration the difficulties that a person with mental health issues may encounter in the criminal justice process.

Wellness/community courts offer integrated supports and services designed to address the problems associated with repeat offenders struggling to reintegrate into society.

There are 11 jurisdictions that operate mental health/wellness/community courts. This includes Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Yukon.

Drug Treatment Courts

Drug treatment courts aim to reduce crime committed as a result of drug dependency through court-monitored treatment and community service support for non-violent offenders with drug addictions. Drug treatment courts currently operate in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

First Nations/Gladue Courts

First Nations/Gladue courts offer restorative justice and traditional approaches for sentencing Indigenous offenders. These courts currently operate in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

Youth Courts

Youth between the ages of 12 to 17 who are accused of a crime have their matters heard in youth court, which is a separate court division. Youth courts currently operate in every province and territory in Canada.

Family/Domestic Violence Courts

Family/domestic violence courts are designed to handle cases of domestic/family violence by offering an integrated, collaborative approach focusing on supporting victims, increasing offender responsibility, and providing early intervention. These courts currently operate in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Northwest Territories.

Table 21 – Legal aid program innovations

Legal aid plans provided information on innovative practices or programs that were implemented for criminal legal aid in 2018-19. An "innovation" refers to a new or improved way of delivering criminal legal aid that targets vulnerable populations, modernizes processes using technology, enhances business practices, and/or supports improved data collection and performance measurement.

Date modified:

2020-06-30