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Legal Aid / Legal Clinics
Legal Aid Ontario
Legal Aid Comparison
Chart - Who Does What? (a chart comparing Legal Aid & clinic
services)
Coordinating Legal Aid and
Clinic Services brochures
Advocacy Centre for the Elderly
- specialty clinic for seniors issues
ARCH Disability Law Centre -
specialty clinic dealing with disability related issues
Family Law Information
Centres (FLIC)
Queen's Legal Aid
Rural Legal Services
(legal clinic for residents of Addington Highlands)
Private Bar
Lawyer Referral Service / Paralegals
Pro Bono Project
Hastings
County Law Association (See also
LibraryCo.ca site)
Legal Aid Ontario
There are two Legal Aid Ontario offices
serving Hastings, Prince Edward and Lennox & Addington counties: one in
Belleville, and one in Napanee.
Click here for their addresses and phone numbers.
Services provided by
Legal Aid Ontario
Area Offices
include:
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Walk-in advice clinics - Mondays in
the Belleville office between 12:00-3:00
p.m. and Wednesdays in the Napanee office between
2:30-4:00 p.m.
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Certificates given, if you qualify,
for representation on family, criminal or
immigration law matters
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Duty Counsel services are
offered in most courts
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Telephone applications -
Legal Aid Offices in our area have a new policy regarding telephone
applications (click to view:
Belleville policy memo,
Napanee policy memo) - effective December 9, 2005, clients may apply for legal aid over the telephone if
they are unable to attend in person at an area office due to disability or geographical distance from an area office (or for victims of domestic
violence). Reassessments may also be conducted over the phone for the same reasons. Note that the process may take longer than an in-person interview
depending on the information required.
For a list of the type of problems that Legal Aid will
assist with vs. the type of problems our clinic will assist with, click
our Legal Aid Comparison Chart
below.
To find a legal aid office or legal clinic in your area,
visit the
Legal Aid website.
If
you are refused Legal Aid:
First, please visit the
legal aid website to find out the
types of cases that are covered and the
types of cases that are not covered.
There is no point in appealing a denial if it is an area
not covered by Legal Aid.
If you are denied a Legal Aid Certificate, you have the
right to appeal. Ask your local legal aid office for an appeal
form if they did not send one with the decision. You must file the
appeal form in writing within 10 days of receiving the Notice of
Refusal of Application for Legal Aid. The appeal is heard by the local
area committee. If you are
denied a Legal Aid Certificate from the Local Area Committee you can
then appeal to the Provincial Office in writing within 7 days of
receiving the decision by filling out a Form 17. Form 17 will be
included if you are denied a legal aid certificate from the Local Area
Committee.
A detailed information guide about appealing a Legal Aid
decision, including links to appeal forms, is found online
here
(PDF
version).
View our Legal Aid
Comparison Charts - These charts outline the difference between Legal Aid and
legal clinic services: Who Does What?
( PDF
files, 1 page).
These charts are to help local people understand when to
go to the Legal Aid Area office, and when to come to us (or one of our
sister legal clinics) for help. It is also a summary chart of when
we are open, where we are, and contact information.
Click below for brochures on
coordinating Legal Aid and clinic services in our three counties:
Looking for other sources of legal help for issues
that the
clinic or legal aid doesn't deal with?
Advocacy Centre for the Elderly
For issues
affecting senior citizens, visit the
Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, a clinic specializing in seniors'
issues. Their site provides many publications and links to other
sources of information that are important to senior citizens, such as
elder abuse,
home care,
nursing homes,
pensions and income,
powers of attorney and
retirement homes.
For more
information and links for seniors, visit our
Seniors page.
ARCH Disability Law Centre
The ARCH
Disability Law Centre is a charitable specialty
legal clinic with a province-wide mandate that is dedicated to defending
and advancing the equality rights of persons with disabilities. ARCH
represents national and provincial disability organizations and
individuals in test case litigation at all levels of tribunals and
courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. They provide education to
the public on disability rights and to the legal profession about
disability law. They make submissions to the government on matters of
law reform and offer a telephone summary legal advice and referral
service.
Visit their site for a
list of services they offer to callers.
Family Law Information Centres (FLIC)
In addition to their
general advice clinic (as mentioned above) Legal Aid provides an advice
lawyer at your local Family Law Information Centre (FLIC) to answer
questions specifically about family law. The FLIC office in
Belleville is located at Century Place, 199 Front Street West. The
advice lawyer is available here to answer questions every Friday from
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. For more information about FLIC, visit the
Ministry of the Attorney General's site.
The Ministry of the
Attorney General site also
has a
Family Justice Matters page which provides links to information
about the Office of the Children's Lawyer, the Office of the Public
Guardian and Trustee, the administration of estates, child support
guidelines,
family law rules,
family law forms, selected family legislation, and the
Family Responsibility Office
(among others) as well as online publications such as "What You Should Know About Family Law in
Ontario", "A Guide to Procedures in Family Court" and "A
Guide to Family Procedures in the Ontario Court of Justice."
You can also visit the
family law section on the CLEONet website for even more information
on all areas of family law.
Tips
for Family Law Lawyers Assisting Clients on Social Assistance
(2 pgs) - March 2008
Queen's Legal Aid (QLA)
-
Services are provided to
residents of Lennox and Addington County
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Queen's Legal Aid is a legal clinic
staffed by law students and supervised by
two full-time lawyers. If
they are able to take your case, a law student will
be assigned to
it, and all steps will be reviewed by one of the lawyers
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Areas that they help with
include: small claims court claims (civil suits
under $10,000), wrongful dismissal and minor criminal matters (summary
conviction and provincial offences)
For a list of the type of problems that Legal Aid will
assist with vs. the type of problems our clinic will assist with, click
our Legal Aid Comparison Chart
above.
Rural Legal Services (RLS)
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Rural
Legal Services is a legal clinic is located in Sharbot Lake
and services are provided to
residents of Addington Highlands, Northern Lennox and
Addington, and the County of Frontenac. They have a satellite
office in Northbrook.
Lawyer Referral Service / Paralegals
You can also call the
lawyer referral service, provided by the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC). This service
charges $6.00 to your phone bill for the call, but they will refer you to a
local lawyer for a free half-hour consultation. Their number is 1-900-565-4577.
For more
detailed information about the service, including a 1-800 number for
incarcerated callers or those in crisis, visit our Lawyer Referral Service page or the
Law Society's website.
Read the LSUC pamphlet,
Lawyers and Paralegals: Helping You With Your Legal Needs."
This pamphlet explains the difference between lawyers and paralegals and
will help you choose which one you need for your type of
case. It also outlines how and where to complain about services
provided by lawyers or paralegals.
Visit the
Law
Society's website page on paralegals for more information on paralegal regulation.
Pro Bono Project
At the present time, we
have volunteer lawyers willing to help low income parents or children
with special education problems in the schools. We call this the Child
Advocacy Project. We have also gathered resources for parents in our
special section on Education Law.
We are now developing a
panel of lawyers who are willing to assist not-for-profit organizations
or groups. Visit our Pro Bono page to
learn more.
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This site provides general information only,
specific to Ontario, Canada. It is
NOT legal advice. 
