Presentation from the OECD Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice, Latvia, 2018. For more information see: http://www.oecd.org/gov/equal-access-to-justice-oecd-expert-roundtable-latvia-2018.htm

1. ThreeOutreachProjects that Extendthe
Reachof LegalAidinOntario,Canada
OECDPolicyRoundtableonEqualAccesstoJustice
Riga,Latvia:July2018
Ab Currie,Ph.D.
SeniorResearchFellow
CanadianForumonCivilJustice

2. Legal Secondary Consultation
• advice provided on request to
service providers in community
service agencies and civil
society organizations assisting
them to help their own clients

3. Pilot Project in 3 Clinics
• 1) Halton Community Legal Services
 1 lawyer and 1 licensed paralegal
• 2) Community Legal Clinic of Brant Haldimand and
Norfolk
 2 lawyers
• 3) Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County
 2 lawyers and 1 community legal worker
• Pilot carried out for between September 2016 and April
2017
• All have been continued on an on-going basis

4. Handout advertising LSC

5. People and Organizations Served
Community
Clinic
Number of
Organizations
Requesting
Consultations
Number of
Requests for
Consultations
Halton 36 89
Brant 28 48
Guelph 39 98
Total 103 235

6. Some Other Findings/Implications
 Serves a wide range of community
groups
Engages the resources of the community
 Builds capacity for community
organizations
 Serves people who would not otherwise
obtain service
Efficient and low cost

7. Some Other Findings/Implications
 Gives the clinic a strong presence
in the community
Collaborative partnerships; attempts to
make legal aid a part of the activities and
objectives of community agencies with
the same broad poverty reduction
objectives as legal aid

8. Medical – Legal Partnerships at
CALC, Belleville
• Medical-legal partnerships with 9
community health services in an 8500
square kilometer mainly rural area
• Began in 2015 with 6 community
health agencies; total of 30 referrals in
the first year
• In 2018 20 referrals per month from 9
health care providers; about 240
referrals per year

9. Satellite Intake and Advice at HCLC,
Hamilton
• Hamilton Outreach Project
• Lawyer and case coordinator
• Weekly on-site clinics in 6 community
organizations
• In the first year of a two-year pilot:
 366 people referred to staff lawyers
 587 people assisted by the case worker

10. Reports
Legal Secondary Consultation: How Legal Aid Can
Support Communities and Expand Access to Justice
• https://www.haltonlegal.ca/docs
Hamilton Outreach Project: Mid-point Evaluation
Meeting People Where they’re At
• https://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/uploads

12. Wide Variety of Community
Organizations
• Off the Wall Youth Centre of Action
• Canadian Mental Health Association
• Saint Vincent de Paul Society
• Guelph Family Health Team
• Ontario Disability Support Program
• Six Nations Long Term Care
• Brockville General Hospital; Mental Health and
Addictions

13. What clinic lawyers said about
engaging community resources
• Engaging community partners to provide the [LSC]
service to their clients has a very high value for the
clinic. The external service providers have a very
strong grasp of their clients’ problems. LSC is a
very efficient way of providing service. (lawyer 1,
Brant)
• LSC is especially valuable in dealing with people
having mental health problems. These situations
require a high degree of trust that is usually
present between the agency service provider and
the client. LSC increases access to the legal clinic by
building the legal capability of people in
community organizations. (lawyer, Guelph)

14. What service providers said
about building capacity
• Yes. Gaining the knowledge, we can assist people more going
forward. If there is an issue re eviction, I already have that
knowledge from the LSC process with [LSC advisor]; [advisor]
has made up letters for clients to give landlords, and I keep
using those. (intensive case manager, Halton Housing Help)
• Absolutely, precedent-setting. Every time I deal with a
situation, I am educated more about what to do next time. It
does happen where one [secondary consultation] helps future
clients without needing to call [the] clinic again. (community
navigator, Links2Care)

15. What service providers said about
serving their clients better
• Resolved in 30 minutes: immigrant family with poor English
signed an illegal lease; had to come up with all this money;
client was worried and in fear. I emailed doc[ument] to HCLS;
they sent a letter back and within 10-15 minutes I sent it to the
landlord. The landlord backed down; this provided peace of
mind and relief to the client. (manager, Saint Vincent de Paul
Society)
• 100%. Although I have a generalist’s knowledge of some of the
legal issues that clients have, having immediate access to
more in-depth legal information and advice is second to none.
My hands would be tied helping transient patients without
having access to secondary consultation. I often find with
ODSP they are a barrier-filled organization; I copy [LSC advisor]
on emails to ODSP and that will get me a response. (social
worker, Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital)

16. Hard-to-reach clients
• Clients don’t want to get involved in conflict and don’t have
the motivation to seek out help; that’s why us helping them
gets them moving along in the process. (community navigator,
Links2Care)
• Some are capable, some freeze at the thought of accessing the
clinic. The barriers are lack of transportation, physical illness
and mental health problems, lack of understanding. (case
manager, CMHA)
• Particularly with housing, our clients live precariously and
experience a lot of abuse and don’t recognize that they have
rights. (case manager, Guelph Community Health Centre)

17. Efficiency
• Responses to requests for
consultation take about 15 – 20
minutes
• No intake
• 10% or less of consultations
become referrals to the clinic
• Overall cost is low

18. Multiple Users
• Halton: 36% made two or more
requests for consultation
• Brant: 28% made multiple requests
• Guelph: 41% made multiple
requests

19. Main Types of Problems
Halton Brant Guelph
Housing 33.0% 34.6% 41.0%
Government
Assistance
34.5% 24.4% 28.6%
67.5% 59.0% 69.6%

20. Types of Issues & Types of Advice
According to interviews with 6 legal advisors:
Most frequent type of issue
1) Legal issues related to an individual’s problem
(2 said very frequently and 4 said frequently)
Most frequent type of advice
1) Legal Advice
(4 said very frequently and 2 said frequently)
2) Strategic Advice
(2 said very frequently and 3 said frequently)

21. Types of Advice: Case Notes
Type of Advice n and %
Halton Legal Info & Referral 12 (23.5%) (n=51)
Legal Info & Strategic Advice 10 (19.6%) (n=51)
Legal Info 9 (17.6%) (n=51)
Brant Strategic Advice 7 (20.0%) (n=35)
Referral 6 (17.1%) (n=35)
Legal Info 6 (17.1%) (n=35)
Guelph Referral 16 (25.4%) (n=63)
Legal Info 13 20.6% (n=63)
Legal Info and Strategic Advice 11 (17.5%) (n=63)

22. Advice that is misunderstood?
• Risk that service providers will pass
along inaccurate information to
people they are helping
• Advisors said they monitored
telephone conversations and e-mail
with service providers to detect
misunderstandings

23. Not a conduit for internal referrals
• Guelph: 8% of consultations
resulted in internal referrals
• Brant: 10% resulted in referrals to
the clinic
• Halton: 0%

24. A form of outreach
• 1) Go out to the community to identify
legal problems
• 2) Work with the community to
address the problems
• 3) Reach out to people who would not
otherwise receive service
• 4) Take services to where people go to
obtain other services or meet other
needs

25. How projects were implemented
and how they work
• At the beginning e-mail notices,
announcements at public
presentations and PLE sessions,
distribution of printed advertisements
• Continued information dissemination
at public presentations and PLE
sessions
• Service providers in service agencies
and community groups request
consultations