Legal Aid in Canada 2022–2023 – Table of Contents

• Previous Page
• Next Page

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Background
  • Legal Aid Program
• Revenues and expenditures
• Legal aid applications
  • Application approvals
  • Application refusals
  • Application outcomes among Indigenous clients
• Duty counsel services
• Appeals
• Legal aid clients
  • Indigenous clients
• Cases and expenditures
• Immigration and refugee legal aid
• Legal aid plan personnel
• Specialized courts
• Pandemic relief funding

List of Tables

• Table 1 - Legal aid plan revenues, by type of revenue, annual, 2022-23
• Table 2a - Legal aid plan expenditures, by type of expenditure, 2022-23
• Table 2b - Total administrative and other costs, 2022-23
• Table 3 - Legal aid applications received, by type of matter, 2022-23
• Table 4 - Legal aid applications approved for full legal representation, by staff and private bar lawyers, annual, 2022-23
• Table 5 - Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, all legal aid matters, 2022-23
• Table 6 - Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, criminal matters, 2022-23
• Table 7 - Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, civil matters, 2022-23
• Table 8 - Applications for full legal representation, approved and refused, by self-identified Indigenous population, criminal and civil, and province/territory, 2022-23
• Table 9 - Duty counsel services, by type of matter, 2022-23
• Table 10 - Duty counsel service expenditures, by type of matter, 2022-23
• Table 11 - Appeal applications, approved and refused, for legal aid services, by criminal and civil matters, 2022-23
• Table 12 - Legal aid clients, by age, gender, and type of matter, Canada, 2022-23
• Table 13 - Indigenous legal aid clients receiving full legal representation and summary services, by gender and type of matter, 2022-23
• Table 14 - Criminal legal aid cases by type of offence and in-year expenditures, adults, Canada, 2022-23
• Table 15 - Criminal legal aid cases by type of offence and in-year expenditures, youth, Canada, 2022-23
• Table 16 - Immigration and refugee legal aid certificates and expenditures, by province and type of lawyer, 2022-23
• Table 17 - Legal aid service delivery by private bar, staff, and other lawyers, 2022-23
• Table 18 - Legal aid plan personnel as of March 31, 2023
• Table 19 - Criminal legal aid funding for innovations, 2022-23

List of figures

• Figure 1 - In 2022-23 legal aid plan revenues rebounded from pandemic lows, with total revenues up 14% since the previous year and on par with revenues from five years ago.
• Figure 2 - In 2022-23 legal aid plan expenditures approached near pre-pandemic levels, down 8% from five years ago.
• Figure 3 - Legal aid applications continue to increase from the low during the pandemic, with received applications up 4% from the previous year but still down about 14% since 2018-19.
• Figure 4 - Criminal matters made up just over half of all legal aid applications in 2022-23.
• Figure 5 - In 2022-23 the vast majority of criminal legal aid applications were for adult matters, while just under half of civil applications were for family matters.
• Figure 6 - Application approval rates have mostly been stable over time, however approval rates for all application types trended upwards since the previous year.
• Figure 7 - More than 8 in 10 adult criminal applications were approved; while almost all youth criminal applications were approved due to eligibility criteria that prioritizes youth.
• Figure 8 - Applications for immigration and refugee matters had an approval rate higher than other types of matters, with almost 9 in 10 applications approved.
• Figure 9 - Applications for child protection matters had the highest rate of approval amoung other civil matters, with almost 9 in 10 approved.
• Figure 10 - After a gradual increase over the past three years, the proportion of legal aid applications refused for financial eligibility saw a slight downturn in 2022-23.
• Figure 11 - Applications from self-identified Indigenous clients were approved at a similar rate for all types of matters.
• Figure 12 - Duty counsel services continue to increase, mostly surpassing pre-pandemic levels; expenditures are up 18% from the previous year, while duty counsel assists up 34% in the same time period.
• Figure 13 - Legal aid applications for appeal proceedings were more often approved for civil matters compared to criminal matters.
• Figure 14 - Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of legal aid clients overall.
• Figure 15 - Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of criminal legal aid clients.
• Figure 16 - Females aged 18-49 made up almost half of civil legal aid clients.
• Figure 17 - Indigenous males made up three quarters of Indigenous criminal legal aid clients, while Indigenous females made up more than two-thirds of Indigenous civil legal aid clients.
• Figure 18 - For adult criminal cases, homicides and sexual assault cases have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume.
• Figure 19 - For youth criminal cases, homicides have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume while assaults have the opposite variance.
• Figure 20 - Immigration and refugee legal aid caseloads and expenditures surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2022-23.
• Figure 21 - Most lawyers delivering legal aid services provide both civil and criminal services.
• Figure 22 - Legal aid plan personnel include a variety of staff, with intake/support workers making up the largest cohort outside of the private bar.
• Figure 23 - Specialized courts by province/territory and type of legal aid service delivery, 2022-23.

• Previous Page
• Next Page