Achievements, improvements & investments

achievements improvements & investment

Strategic Planning: In the fall of 2006, Legal Aid Ontario began the Quantum strategic planning initiative, an ongoing process to encourage continuous improvement in everything we do to speak to our clients’ needs, as well as taxpayers’ expectations. The Quantum initiative included extensive discussions with Legal Aid Ontario employees and set the stage for further discussions with service providers and other key stakeholders, all in the pursuit of access to justice in Ontario. The result was the establishment of a management strategy for the next five years that seeks to maximize efficiency and effectiveness through innovation, measurement, prioritization, accountability and coordination. The Value Agenda: The Ontario Government announced new funding for Legal Aid Ontario in the 2007 provincial budget. The investment, an additional $51 million, will be spread over three years, beginning in 2007-08, ultimately raising Legal Aid Ontario’s budgetary base by $19 million. The goal of Legal Aid Ontario’s Value Agenda is to match the value of the new base increase with program and administrative efficiencies and innovations over the next five years. The Corporate Environment: To address the need to

create more places where innovation can be successfully nurtured within Legal Aid Ontario, a new corporate reporting structure has been introduced within the organization. Set up across four geographic regions in Ontario, the new organizational design will allow Legal Aid Ontario to be more responsive to the needs of clients and staff by improving the co-ordination of services for clients and by more fully engaging local stakeholders in Legal Aid Ontario’s business. Additionally, it will help Legal Aid Ontario achieve the goals of the Value Agenda, including efforts to develop centralized and cohesive points of contact with stakeholders; optimize communications among Legal Aid Ontario staff and between managers and staff; and articulate clear accountabilities for all Legal Aid Ontario programs. The structure will also provide clinics with greater access to Legal Aid Ontario senior management and to regional Legal Aid Ontario service partners. LAO Provincial Office Relocation: In line with

the Value Agenda, the Corporate Services Division has negotiated a lease for new office space close to the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto that will generate almost $900,000 in annual savings. The move, scheduled for June 2008, will help facilitate increased co-ordination of services and resources by co-locating the Legal Aid Ontario Provincial Office, Toronto Area Office, the Family Law Office and Refugee Law Office on a single floor at the new location. In addition to the savings, the re-location to Atrium on Bay will provide a modern backdrop from which we can continue to pursue our management strategy and value agenda. As part of the move, we will be updating our work environment to one that is modern, innovative, enhances communication and coordination, and is in line with the OPS and other public sector organizations. This includes implementing an “open office concept” for all employees, the President included, modernizing our work environment, and developing work from home protocols. It is expected that by updating our environment we will reduce our space requirements from 85,000 to about 70,000, a 17 per cent reduction.

investment in legal aid

The Ontario government’s recent infusion of $51 million of funding to LAO over three years demonstrates the commitment of the people of Ontario to ensure that low-income Ontarians receive access to the vital legal services they need and to improving those services by: n Increasing the legal aid tariff rate, helping LAO to ensure that there will be a steady stream of legal aid service providers to serve clients n Re-examining LAO’s financial eligibility criteria to make legal aid accessible to more people n Strengthening family law services by increasing the number of available certificates

n Boosting funding for big cases n Strengthening clinic law services by funding a new clinic, addressing increasing operating costs and improving French language services n Establishing an Aboriginal Services Strategy n Expanding services to people who do not speak English or French n Improving case management in clinics Increasing the legal aid tariffs: Applying to

legal aid certificates issued and duty counsel services rendered on or after April 1, 2007, the Ministry of the Attorney General announced a 5 per cent increase to the tariff paid to private lawyers who provide legal aid services to low-income Ontarians. The new tariff rate increase will make it more financially feasible for lawyers to provide legal aid services, helping to ensure that people with low-incomes have access to stable, high quality legal services that respond to their needs. Legal Aid Ontario expects that the increase to the tariff rate will lead to more lawyers accepting legal aid certificates, resulting in more clients being served. Legal Aid Ontario will be able to track the rates at which lawyers accept certificates and note the effect of the increased tariff rate.

An increase to the articling student tariff rate from $23 to $46 per hour, which also came into effect April 1, will make it easier for lawyers to hire articling students and provide better services to their legal aid clients. Legal Aid Ontario will be able to track the number of student hours billed, and note whether there has been an increase in billings after the tariff rate increase.

Re-examining financial eligibility criteria:

As the financial eligibility test for clients has not been reviewed for over a decade, a comprehensive financial eligibility study will help Legal Aid Ontario move towards considering new eligibility criteria that better reflect modern means testing principles. In 2006-2007, Legal Aid Ontario commissioned a review and report by an outside expert looking at the way in which financial eligibility is currently calculated, and examining whether there are options for simplifying and streamlining the existing test. In 2007-2008, Legal Aid Ontario will continue to work closely with the consultant on the next stage of the process, which will involve developing a review that proposes what a new financial eligibility test should look like, and that analyzes the likely impact of the new test on clients.

achievements improvements & investment continued

strengthening family law services

Each year, thousands of people turn to Legal Aid Ontario for help with family issues. This includes women and children living in situations of domestic violence, or facing child custody and spousal support issues. An increase in family law certificates by 750 per year will help to ease increasing demands for family law services, and will help to ensure that family services are not “squeezed out” by those criminal law services that are constitutionally mandated. In addition, Legal Aid Ontario has allocated one time funding for a pool of 500 “reserve” family certificates to deal with fluctuations in demand for family law services over the next three years.

boosting funding for big cases

There has been an increase in the number of large, complex cases involving multiple accused. Hand in hand with this increase is a need to ensure that when charges are laid, legal aid is available. In order to meet the demand for legal aid coverage in complex and costly criminal trials, LAO is investing an additional $5 million annually into its Big Case Management program. This investment will ensure that adequate resources are available to provide legal coverage for these types of cases without jeopardizing other legal aid services. This new funding will coincide with Legal Aid Ontario’s current work on clarifying accountabilities for big case management.

strengthening clinic law services

Increases in clinic staff salaries and investment in clinic operational costs will help clinics to recruit and retain qualified staff, maximize administrative efficiency, and devote more time to serving clients rather than on having to overcome operational challenges as a result of inadequate funding. Clinic successes will be measured within current accountability structures and performance measures while Legal Aid Ontario continues to develop new measures for clinic law services.

establishing a new clinic to serve the south asian community

Base funding for the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) will help ensure that Toronto’s South Asian community continues to be served. Legal Aid Ontario will measure the success of the clinic using clinic performance measures already in place for all Legal Aid Ontario funded clinics, while Legal Aid Ontario continues to work on new measures for clinics.

establishing an aboriginal services strategy

Aboriginal people represent 2.6% of Canadian adults, yet they make up 21% of adults in jail, 19% of people given a conditional sentence and 16% of those on probation. In the summer of 2007, Legal Aid Ontario began consulting widely on the development of an organization-wide strategy for improving services to Aboriginal clients. Legal Aid Ontario will be working closely with staff of the Ministry of the Attorney General to ensure a high level of coordination between Legal Aid Ontario and the Ministry’s Aboriginal strategies. In the spring of 2008, the CEO will present to the Board a final report, which will include recommended strategic directions.

expanding services to people who do not speak english or french

People who do not understand English or French are over-represented among Ontario’s poor. Nearly five per cent of Ontarians below the poverty line cannot speak French or English and 25% speak another language at home. Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) is a community legal clinic dedicated to providing linguistic and culturally sensitive materials for some of the province’s communities in greatest need of information about their legal rights. The funding allocated towards the expansion of the CLEO program will expand CLEO’s Six Languages Text and Audio Project by making more information available to the existing six language groups (Arabic, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, and Urdu).

improving case management in the clinics

The Clinic Information Management project will provide a case management system for clinics to support day-to-day operational activities, performance management and business planning. It will improve the information provided to clinic boards and to Legal Aid Ontario to assist both groups in fulfilling their performance management obligations. One potential software solution is currently being piloted in the Simcoe clinic and will be evaluated on an ongoing basis.