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| Finding Legal Help in Ontario This guide has been prepared by the Bora Laskin Law Library to help people find a lawyer or other legal support to help resolve legal problems. The staff at the Bora Laskin Law Library cannot provide legal advice to any library patron. Our job instead is to provide patrons with answers to specific questions, and to offer some direction to those conducting their own legal research. Due to our limited resources, however, there are times when we cannot help members of the public directly, and on occasion the research project of a particular patron is too large to undertake as a whole. To extend our services in these cases we provide a variety of pamphlets and other information to help patrons find law-related materials within the library. Similarly, people sometimes come to the library with problems that cannot be resolved by research alone. Successful resolution of legal problems involves additional steps, and each step may require technical know-how. Naturally, experience in these steps is a great asset, so most people entrust the process to a lawyer. At the very least, some basic legal advice is usually a necessity for anyone preparing for court. Lawyers, of course, can be expensive, but this is not always so. Many government programs offer legal help for free or at reduced rates for people on a budget. If you have a legal problem and need legal help, please consider taking advantage of one or more of the following services. Developed by Legal Information Ontario, Legal Line Online, the Web version of this service provides free, easy to understand general information on 807 topics in 28 different areas of law via the Internet. Legal Line, the 24 hour touch tone version of this service is available by phone at (416) 929-8400, the telephone version is more up-to-date than the Web version and includes up to 1000 topics. Coming in 2001, users will have the option of connecting to a "live" lawyer for referral. Law Society of Upper Canada — Lawyer Referral Service The Law Society of Upper Canada provides a no-obligation lawyer referral service at a cost of $6.00 charged on your phone bill. Call 1-900-565-4577, 9 to 5 Monday to Friday. When you contact the service an operator will give you the names of one or more lawyers in Ontario near where you live who practice in the area of law relevant to your problem. You can then call one of these lawyers and arrange a thirty-minute free consultation after which time you can decide whether or not to hire that lawyer or consider other options. The website of the Ontario Legal Aid Plan explains that "legal aid . . . is available across the province, to lower-income people for a variety of legal problems, including criminal matters, family disputes, immigration and refugee hearings and poverty law issues such as landlord/tenant disputes and employment insurance." The Plan also explains that: eligibility for legal aid is based on financial need and the type of case; the applicant may pay nothing or a portion of the costs of the legal aid, depending on his or her financial situation; once approved, a legal aid certificate entitles a person to retain the lawyer of their choice; the lawyer is then reimbursed by the Plan. In Toronto, the head office for legal aid is Atrium On Bay, Suite 200, 40 Dundas Street West, Toronto ON Canada, M5G 2H1. In Metro Toronto, call 416-979-1446, and elsewhere in Ontario call: 1-800-668-8258. The fax number is 416-979-8669. Their website provides answers to any questions you might have, including explanations of the financial eligibility requirements, the location of their offices, and what you can do if you do not qualify for legal aid. Click here to link to a list of legal aid offices and community legal clinics in Ontario . Law Help Ontario provides information and resources for the general public on pro bono legal services provided through Pro Bono Law Ontario which develops special projects through law firms, legal clinics or community-based organizations to provide free legal services to eligible members of the public. These services are also available for nonprofit or charitable organizations. If you do not qualify for legal aid, you may wish to consider contacting the applicable community legal clinic from the list below. Many of these clinics have their own eligibility requirements, so you will need to check directly with the clinic to see if they will be able to represent you. One general requirement is based on residency — you must ordinarily attend the clinic nearest to where you live. Click here to link to an alphabetical list of legal aid offices and community legal clinics in Ontario . This information is also available in The Blue Book '99: Directory of Community Services in Toronto, which is available in most public libraries. There are a number of legal clinics operated by University of Toronto law students under the supervision of qualified professors or other staff. Each clinic may have slightly different eligibility requirements. Please contact the most applicable clinic to see if you qualify for their services.
Downtown Legal Services is a community legal clinic operated by the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law. Free legal services are provided by law students, who are supervised by lawyers. The clinic offers legal advice and representation for problems in a number of areas of law, including criminal law, tenants' rights, family law, refugee law, and university affairs. Other legal services include public legal education, test case litigation and law reform activities. Appointments are required, and can be made by calling (416) 978-6447. The clinic is located at 655 Spadina Avenue. It is just south of Bloor on the east side of Spadina Avenue (not Spadina Road), at the corner of Glen Morris and Spadina. Downtown Legal Services also sees clients at three satellite clinics, at Out of the Cold, Street Outreach Services, and 519 Community Centre. Advocates for Injured Workers Advocates for Injured Workers (A.I.W.) is a small student legal clinic that offers free legal advice and representation to the community. The clinic specializes in Workers Compensation and Canada Pension Plan Disability claims, and their clients come from many neighbourhoods in and around Toronto and from a wide variety of occupational and ethnic backgrounds. Students working at the clinic are supervised by a staff lawyer from Kensington-Bellwoods Community Legal Services but have full responsibility for files including the preparation and presentation of appeals before the Workers Compensation Board and the Workers Compensation Appeals Tribunal. Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples The Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples serves immigrants from over fifteen Spanish-speaking countries. As a result, a substantial amount of the casework is in the area of immigration law. Students are supervised by staff lawyers, but are responsible for managing files, setting court dates and representing clients before boards, tribunals and provincial courts. ADR professionals offer mediation and arbitration services, which can be effective and cost-cutting alternatives to legal action. Currently legal aid covers settlement conferences. For more information contact the Ontario Legal Aid Plan at http://www.legalaid.on.ca and the sites below. If you have been subject to any violence, you should report the situation to one of the following 24-hour emergency phone numbers:
If your situation is not an emergency, you could consider contacting one of the following organizations or visiting the website for more information: METRAC: Metro Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children The Metropolitan Toronto Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) is a non-profit organization committed to the right of women and children to live their lives free of violence and the threat of violence. They are located at 158 Spadina Road, Toronto ON M5R 2T8, Tel: 416-392-3135 or 1-877-558-5570, Fax: 416-392-3136. Site includes a link to an excellent collection of emergency telephone numbers. The Ontario Women's Directorate is a government run website that provides information on the social, economic and legal rights of women. The site also provides resources and information for "Assaulted Women & Women in Crisis" The Family Transition Place describes itself as providing "safe shelter, support and counselling to abused women and their children." Their mission is to work in the community to end violence against women. The address is 20 Bredin Parkway, Orangeville, ON L9W 4Z9. They serve primarily the County of Dufferin and the Town of Caledon. Contact (519) 941- HELP (4357) or 1-800-265-9178. Shelternet: Making the Link for Abused Women Shelternet can help to bridge the gap for women seeking shelter on-line and take women quickly to the shelters web site in their area or, if a shelter does not have a site, to information taken from the directory information available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence. Ontario Human Rights Commission The Ontario Human Rights Commission is a statutory body with the mandate of enforcing the Ontario Human Rights Code and of promoting human rights in Ontario. The extensive website above provides information on the Commission and the commissioners, the complaint process, summaries of legal decisions and other related information. Members of the public may initiate inquiries by calling the Commission at 1-800-387-9080. The Ombudsman investigates complaints against provincial government organizations. When the Ombudsman finds something wrong, he or she can make recommendations to fix the problem, and if these are not acted upon, she can report the case to the Legislature. The Ombudsman can also help resolve complaints informally. Ontario's Ombudsman is an Officer of the provincial Legislature who is independent of the government and political parties. Three other public-access libraries in the Greater Toronto Area have large collections of legal resources. Like the Bora Laskin Law Library, however, the libraries below may not have the resources and staff to take you through each step in the research process. The Toronto Reference Library is located at 789 Yonge Street, Toronto ON M4W 2G8. The main phone line is 416-393-7131 and the hours and location line is 416-393-7196. The catalogue is available online at the site above. Most materials are for use only in the library and cannot be signed out. Most law-related materials are found in the Main Reference area on the second floor. York University Law Library (Osgoode Hall Law School) The York University Law Library is located in the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, 4700 Keele Street Toronto, M4K 1C2. The library has the largest law collection in all of Canada. While its primary focus is to serve York's law students and faculty, the library is open to the public. More information about hours and the collection can be found at the website above. The Urban Affairs Library is located on the mezzanine level of Metro Hall at 55 John Street, located on the corner of King and John Streets, just west of Roy Thomson Hall, and is open to the general public. The website above describes in detail the types of resources carried at this library, which includes substantial information related to municipal law and urban affairs. Self-Counsel Press Publications Self-Counsel Press publishes various paperback books on a variety of legal topics. These books generally cost $15 or less, are written in plain English by lawyers, and can be found in most bookstores or ordered through the company's website at the URL above. Alternatively, you may find that your local library carries several titles from this publisher. In many cases, the information in these books will answer your legal questions, and even if they do not and you are required to hire a lawyer, you will be better informed about your rights and will likely save on legal fees. Titles from this publisher include the following subjects (Note: Always make sure you are reading the most current edition):
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