Legal aid

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Canada's legal aid plans spent $659 million on delivering legal aid services in 2006/2007, or the equivalent of $20 for every Canadian. These figures do not include spending by the legal aid plans in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island.

Spending was down 4% from the previous year, once inflation was taken into account. However, this decline came on the heels of an increase of about 9% the year before.

These plans have been established in each province and territory with the common goal of assisting lower income Canadians who require professional legal counsel. Each plan has developed its own individual legal aid scheme, so structures, operations and eligibility requirements vary from one jurisdiction to the next. For 2006/2007, 11 of 13 legal aid plans provided data for the survey.

These 11 legal aid plans received 761,000 applications for assistance for criminal and civil matters in 2006/2007, a 2% decrease from the previous year. A 5% drop in the number of applications for civil matters was responsible for this decline.

The number of applications received by the provincial and territorial legal aid plans provides only a general indication of the demand for legal services in Canada. Applicants are screened to some degree before an application is filed and coverage and eligibility requirements restrict the types of cases that receive assistance.

About 472,000 applications were approved for full legal aid service for criminal and civil matters in 2006/2007. This was down slightly from the year before. Nunavut (-37%) and Manitoba (-10%) reported the largest declines. Overall, 6 of the 11 reporting jurisdictions registered increases in approved applications, with Northwest Territories (+20%) and Yukon (+12%) leading the way.

Cases involving criminal matters accounted for slightly more than half of direct legal aid expenditures. This proportion has climbed over the last five years, from about 46% in 2002/2003. The remaining expenditures went toward civil cases.

Except for Quebec and Ontario, jurisdictions spend more on providing criminal legal aid than on civil legal aid. Proportions ranged from 55% of direct expenditures spent on criminal matters in Nova Scotia to 83% in Nunavut. The legal aid plan in Quebec allocated 42% of direct expenditures to criminal legal aid, while in Ontario, the figure was 47%.

Governments, both provincial/territorial and federal, continue to be the major source of funding for legal aid plans. They contributed close to 90% of total revenues, amounting to $592 million in 2006/2007. Other sources of funding include contributions from clients and the legal profession.

Provincial governments directly fund both criminal and civil legal aid. In 2006/2007, that funding totalled $474 million or about $15 for every person in Canada. Funding was up 2% from the year before, once inflation was taken into account.

The federal government contributes directly to the cost of criminal legal aid. For the past five years, that funding has remained steady at $92 million or about $3 per person. In real terms, federal funding has declined, including a 2% drop in 2006/2007.

Just over 11,000 lawyers, from both the private sector and legal aid plans, provided legal aid assistance in 2006/2007, a 9% decline from the previous year.

Available on CANSIM: tables 258-0001 to 258-0004.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3308.

The annual report, Legal Aid in Canada: Resource and Caseload Statistics, 2006/2007 (85F0015XIE, free) is now available from our website. From the Publications module, under Free Internet publications, choose Crime and justice.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Information and Client Services (toll-free 1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.