News room/ 2023-2024
Highlights 2023-2024
50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE LEGAL AID NETWORK
The Legal Aid Act was assented to on July 7, 1972. This statute created and implemented a structure offering legal services accessible to economically disadvantaged people throughout Québec. The 50th anniversary celebrations continued throughout the fiscal year. In addition to the events organized by the eleven regional centres, the Commission des services juridiques and the Ministère de la Justice organized a cocktail party on May 9, 2023, to celebrate the anniversary and culminate the festivities. The event brought together all the Commission’s partners from the legal, political and community spheres in
the presence of Premier François Legault, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barette and many other dignitaries and founders of the legal aid network.
1st LEGAL AID NETWORK CONVENTION
The first convention of the legal aid network was held from October 25 to 27, 2023. This new formula was intended to modernize the traditional annual workshop and training days. In addition to the opening panel on access to justice, featuring Mtre Elisabeth Corte, former Chief Judge of the Court of Québec, Mtre Gilles Ouimet, past president of the Bar and former Member of the National Assembly, and Mtre Isabelle Richer, journalist and columnist at Radio-Canada, no fewer than 27 training sessions were given to over 450 lawyers from the network, who were gathered together for the first time since the pandemic. The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barette, gave the closing address at this highly successful event.
TABLING OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT AND ACTION PLAN
Following his audit, on November 23, 2023, the Auditor General of Québec (the “Auditor”) tabled his report on the accessibility and performance of the legal aid network.
The report contains the following recommendations:
- Take the necessary steps to evaluate the possibility of revising the financial eligibilitycriteria so that, among other things, they make it possible to better take into account the applicant’s ability to pay legal fees.
- Review the administrative process for obtaining legal aid so as to make it more efficient, and enable better sharing of information between centres.
- Make arrangements with other organizations to obtain information on applicants or validate the financial information they declare, and simplify the process for applicants who need to provide documents.
- Obtain the management information needed to ensure network performance.
- Review the management and coordination of administrative tasks so as to foster the rational use of resources and consistency of practices within the network.
The Commission des services juridiques and the regional centres, in conjunction with the Auditor’s team, drew up an action plan comprising 34 actions. These measures will address the recommendations and findings raised in the report. They are part of the network’s vision and will be supported by the Commission’s digital transformation.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Over the course of the most recently completed fiscal year, the Commission des services juridiques continued the modernization of its practices and the implementation of the projects and initiatives set out in its eMAJ Program.
The vision for modernizing the legal aid network is to provide citizens with high quality, accessible and simplified services, supported by state-of-the-art digital solutions, innovative ways of doing things, employee engagement and the strength of the legal aid network.
Several projects are aimed at managing lawyers’ practices virtually and facilitating access to eligibility for our clients. To ensure the success of these projects, local resources have been targeted in the regional centres to enable collaboration between all members and the pooling of know-how.
As part of its strategic orientations and the consolidation of its approach to modern collaborative work aimed at the effective and efficient use of information technologies, the legal aid network offers its users a range of collaborative tools for professional use, enabling them to increase their capacity for collaboration.
A master policy has been drawn up to provide a global vision of cloud computing security. It sets out the obligations of regional departments and users in terms of such security.
The business statement entitled “Gestion du cycle de vie du dossier judiciaire de l’aide juridique” [legal aid court file lifecycle management] is currently under analysis by the Ministère de la Cybersécurité et du Numérique.
SERVICE FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL AND DOMESTIC ABUSE Following the recommendations in the “Plan d’action spécifique pour prévenir les situations de violence conjugale à haut risque de dangerosité et accroître la sécurité des victimes 2020-2025” [2020-2025 specific action plan to prevent situations of domestic violence with a high risk of danger and increase the safety of victims] and the recommendations of the Comité d’experts sur l’accompagnement des victimes
d’agressions sexuelles et de violence conjugale set out in its report entitled “Rebâtir la confiance” [rebuilding trust], on October 1, 2021, the Commission set up a free telephone and virtual legal consultation service for victims of sexual abuse and domestic abuse, regardless of their income. They are entitled to four hours of legal consultation in all areas of the law related to such abuse.
The service is now managed directly by the Commission des services juridiques. The team has grown, with the creation of Rebâtir phase II, a 100% virtual office dedicated exclusively to representing victims of domestic and sexual abuse before Québec courts in cases of conflict of interest in a regional centre. An Indigenous component has also been developed. The program is now composed of 20 specialized lawyers and 8 specialized support staff located in various regions of Québec.
It should also be noted that the Commission des services juridiques continued to participate actively in the implementation of the pilot projects for the specialized sexual and domestic abuse tribunal. The protocol for collaborating with CAVAC as part of the specialized tribunal pilot project implemented a year ago is now available in the judicial districts targeted by the third wave of deployment of the specialized tribunal.
The protocol makes it possible to meet the representation needs of victims of domestic abuse by favouring personalized referrals from CAVAC’s socio-judicial liaison workers to designated lawyers from legal aid offices in situations where a safeguard order is necessary for the safety of the victims and their children. It also seeks to foster greater coherence between the Criminal and Penal Division and the Family Division.
INDEXATION OF THE ELIGIBILITY THRESHOLDS AND SUMMARY OF THE SUCCESSIVE INCREASES On May 31, 2023, the eligibility thresholds for free legal aid were increased by
7.02%. This percentage is equal to the increase in the minimum wage on May 1, 2023. On January 1, 2016, the legal aid eligibility thresholds had been increased, with the minimum wage as a reference point.
A person who is single and works a 35-hour week at minimum wage, namely
$27,755 per year, is thus eligible for legal aid at no cost. Moreover, legal aid services are free to a family of two adults and two children whose income is less than
$45,515.
The Québec legal aid plan also includes a component for individuals whose income falls between the eligibility thresholds for free legal aid and the maximum thresholds requiring a contribution (contributory legal aid). The contributory scheme offers a unique formula that allows individuals to be represented in court by a lawyer while knowing, in advance, the maximum amount of their legal fees and the costs that may be claimed from them. The contributory scheme allows an individual to receive legal services if their income, assets and liquidities match the eligibility scale in effect and if the individual pays a contribution ranging from $100 to $800, depending on the composition of the individual’s family and the individual’s financial situation. The eligibility scale for legal aid under the contributory scheme was also increased by
7.02%.
In short, the enhanced legal aid financial eligibility criteria benefit working people with modest incomes as well as seniors whose principal source of income is their Old Age Security benefits and the Guaranteed Income Supplement.
Over the span of 18 years, for a single person:
- The minimum scale changed from $8,870 $ to $27,755, an increase of 212.9%
- The maximum scale changed from $12,640 $ to $38,771, an increase of 206.7%.
The Commission des services juridiques developed tools to evaluate the number of cases which, were it not for the increase in the financial eligibility thresholds for legal aid since January 1, 2014, would not have qualified for legal aid. For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, this number amounted to 35,535.
WORKING CONDITIONS AND LABOUR RELATIONS During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, collective agreements were signed with the unions of office employees of the regional centres in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Montreal and Laurentides-Lanaudière. Although the collective agreements for the office employees of the other regional centres were signed during the previous fiscal year, negotiations have resumed given that the agreements had already expired at the time they were signed.
These collective agreements provide the network’s employees with working conditions comparable to those of employees in the public sector.
As regards lawyers, all of their unions signed their respective agreements during the current fiscal year. As these collective agreements had also expired at the time they were signed, negotiations will resume in the near future.
TARIFFS OF FEES OF LAWYERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE AND FOLLOW-UP ON THE REPORTS OF THE INDEPENDENT WORKING GROUP (IWG) The December 9, 2020 agreements on the tariffs of fees of lawyers in private practice provided for the establishment of an Independent Working Group (IWG) charged with making recommendations on the reform of the legal aid tariff structure.
On July 9, 2021, the IWG filed a progress report containing 43 recommendations.
As of March 31, 2024:
- work on 20 recommendations had been completed, including regulatory amendments that came into force on December 29, 2022 and relax requirements for the documents applicants must provide to establish their financial eligibility for legal aid;
- work on 21 recommendations was in progress, relating primarily to the digital transformation of the legal aid network; and
- work on 2 recommendations had not yet been initiated, as the recommendations depend on completion of the work related to the aforementioned digital transformation.
The IWG also filed its final report on May 27, 2022. The report contains 181 recommendations, of which 18 that were considered urgent were taken into account when the tariffs were modified on August 26, 2022.
A committee to follow up on the two reports was established and has held 19 meetings since its creation.