LAO: Ontario Lawyers

Legal Aid Ontario LAO Dept: Under the old payment scheme by Legal Aid Ontario LAO , lawyers were paid for the work they did preparing refugees appeals at the federal court and drafting opinion letters for the clients legal aid application, even if LAO ended up rejecting the request, according to The Star. However, under the new system, LAO won t reimburse the legal service already invested if it disapproves the legal aid at the end, either because the client earns more than $12,000 a year or the case is deemed unlikely to succeed and some Ontario lawyers have stopped accepting refugee clients on legal aid fearing they won t get paid under new cutbacks that took effect Thursday. Lawyers were allowed to bill up to four hours at about $110 an hour for researching a client s case and drafting the opinion letter, an analysis of the refugee s case. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.