Collaborative Practice Toronto

Collaborative Practice and Legal Aid

Collaborative Practice is a respectful, non-adversarial way to resolve family law issues. Essentially, parties agree, with their lawyers, to employ interest-based negotiation to resolve their dispute, instead of going to court. According to the Legal Services Act, 1998, Legal Aid is available to assist low income clients in accessing legal services in many different areas of law, including family law. Legal Aid certificates are now available for Collaborative Practice. If you earn a low income or are receiving social assistance, you can apply to obtain a legal aid certificate to resolve the issues arising from the breakdown of your relationship using Collaborative Practice.

APPLYING FOR LEGAL AID

You can apply for legal aid at any one of the 48 Legal Aid area offices across the Province. You can find the Area Office nearest you in the Blue Pages of the phone book under "Legal Aid," or through Legal Aid Ontario’s website (www.legalaid.on.ca/en/) under the heading, "Getting Legal Help."

Area Office staff will help you complete the application for legal aid, and if you are eligible, can sometimes approve your application right away.

If you qualify for legal aid and you receive a certificate, you may take the certificate to a lawyer of your choice who is a trained member of a Collaborative Practice group and who accepts legal aid certificates.

If you are found not to be eligible for a certificate, you may appeal the decision to the Area Committee of your local Legal Aid office. It usually takes a few days for the Area Committee to get back to you once you have submitted your appeal. You can also reapply if there has been a change in your financial circumstances.

LEGAL AID’S ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

There are two parts to determining whether or not you are eligible for legal aid. First, Legal Aid will look at your assets (such as cash, back accounts, stocks, bonds, and RRSPs) to determine whether or not you could afford a lawyer by yourself. Legal Aid will also look at anything that can be sold or easily converted into cash. Depending on the situation, you may be expected to use some of your assets to help pay for legal fees. If you own a house or property, Legal Aid may also require that a lien be placed against the property, or other arrangements can be made through a contribution agreement.

The second part to Legal Aid’s financial eligibility test looks at your income. You may be eligible for legal aid without a detailed assessment if your net income (i.e. your income after tax) is as follows:

 
Monthly
or   Yearly
Family size = 1
$601
$7,212
Family size = 2
$1,075
$12,900
Family size = 3
$1,137
$13,644
Family size = 4
$1,281
$15,372
Family size = 5
$1,281
$15,372

If you are receiving social assistance, then you are usually eligible for legal aid, depending on your available assets. If your income is more than the amounts above, Legal Aid will require a more detailed test to determine eligibility. To determine net income, Legal Aid will deduct payroll deductions, day care costs and child support payments from your gross income. Legal Aid then applies a set of standard allowances, which depend on the number of people in your household to determine your disposable income. The amounts of the standard allowances can be obtained from your Legal Aid office.

When you apply for legal aid, you will be asked to provide proof of income, such as pay slips, bank records or social assistance statements. To avoid delays, it is best to gather all of this information to include with your initial application.

In the end, your Legal Aid office will advise you whether or not you qualify for legal aid, whether you will need to pay for some of your legal fees through a contribution agreement, or whether you will be refused legal aid.

FINDING A COLLABORATIVE LAWYER

Not all lawyers accept legal aid certificates, and not all family lawyers are collaboratively trained. The staff at your Legal Aid Area Office can provide names of local collaborative lawyers who accept Legal Aid certificates.

There are collaborative Practice groups across the country that have websites where you can get more information about how to locate a collaboratively trained lawyer, as well as bios on the lawyers themselves. Some of the websites in Ontario are listed below:

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM YOUR COLLABORATIVE LAWYER

Legal Aid Ontario will usually cover up to 16 hours of your lawyer's time. Your lawyer can apply for more time if your matter is complex and your lawyer has used the initial allotted time.

If you and your lawyer decide that it would be helpful for a mediator or a divorce coach to be involved in helping you to resolve your case, Legal Aid may authorize payment for one. Every family is entitled to 2.5 hours of mediation services, with additional hours being granted according to the reasons for the request and the likelihood of resolution. The certificate also allows parties to make use of settlement conferences at any of Legal Aid's area offices. Settlement conferences are like mediations, facilitated by the staff at Legal Aid.

If you and your partner are unable to resolve your case through Collaborative Practice and need to go to court, both lawyers will no longer be able to represent either of you. This is true for all collaborative files whether legally aided or not. You will need to go back to your Legal Aid office and apply for a change of lawyer. Legal Aid must be advised of the reason for the breakdown. The Area Director may request a report from your lawyer explaining the reasons, and the Area Office may then assess what, if anything, has been completed, and whether remaining issues continue to meet coverage policy.

LEGAL AID ONTARIO'S POLICY REGARDING COLLABORATIVE CERTIFICATES

For the most part, obtaining a legal aid certificate for a Collaborative Practice case is the same as obtaining a legal aid certificate for a non-collaborative case. One key difference is that if you want to use Collaborative Practice, you will need to find a family law lawyer who is trained in Collaborative Practice to take your certificate, and the lawyer must be in good standing with their local Collaborative Practice Group. Additionally, lawyers must be on the Legal Aid Ontario family panel and be compliant with panel standards. Finally, Legal Aid Ontario requires lawyers to agree to participate in an evaluation of Collaborative Practice by providing information with respect to outcomes, and participate in any surveys or other data collection process as may be required.

The second difference is that if you are the victim of domestic violence from your spouse, your Collaborative Practice lawyer will require that you sign an acknowledgment that you understand that you have the choice to proceed through the Collaborative Practice process or through the court.

WHY COLLABORATIVE LAW REPRESENTS THE BETTER ALTERNATIVE, EVEN FOR A LEGALLY AIDED CLIENT

Collaborative Practice is a co-operative, voluntary conflict resolution process for family law matters. It offers a more peaceful and constructive way of resolving the issues which arise from separation. It is based on the premise that it is in the best interest of families (and particularly children) to avoid adversarial proceedings, and to work together to create shared solutions to their problems. Legally-aided clients are now able to choose Collaborative Practice and receive the benefits of this process.

This article was authored by Aaron Mastervick and Neeraj Goel
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