Finding a Legal Aid lawyer for criminal charges.
A very common question asked of our criminal defence lawyers is whether we accept Legal Aid Ontario certificates for criminal charges.
Does our law firm and criminal defence lawyers accept Legal Aid Ontario certificates?
G
enerally speaking, our firm does not accept Legal Aid Ontario certificates; however, this decision is made on a case by case basis in consideration of a number of factors that include:
- Have you applied and are you eligible for Legal Aid Ontario certificate for your criminal charges?
- What are the nature of the criminal charges you wish us to represent you on a Legal Aid Ontario certificate?
- Are the criminal charges you are facing very serious or relatively minor?
- What criminal defence lawyer in our law firm would you like to represent you on a Legal Aid Ontario certificate?
- Are you a youth or adult?
- Are you switching from another criminal defence lawyer who already represents you on a Legal Aid Ontario certificate?
- Do you have a pre-existing relationship with our law firm, or one of our criminal defence lawyers?
- Is there a strong public interest in defending your case?
These questions above, are some of the issues we consider when representing new or existing clients on Legal Aid Ontario certificates for criminal charges.
Are you eligible for a Legal Aid Ontario Certificate?
Please see the chart below obtained from the Legal Aid Ontario website to see whether you are financially eligible for a Legal Aid certificate for your criminal charges in:
Speak to one of our lawyers. We can help you in obtaining a lawyer on Legal Aid.
We encourage you to contact our firm and discuss your case with one our lawyers, meet for a consultation, and see whether you are one of the few exceptions we make for accepting people on Legal Aid certificates. For those that are, you will receive the same high quality of representation that our non-Legal Aid clients receive. Once you are our client, we treated everyone the same and with the same level of dedication.
All our lawyers are part of Legal Aid Ontario’s Criminal Law Panel. In addition to the Criminal Law Panel, Lead Counsel Sean Robichaud also is qualified under Legal Aid Ontario’s “Extremely Serious Matters” panel as well as part of a very select group of Ontario criminal defence lawyers who receive a “Complex Case Rate” for very serious offences like murder and terrorism offences.
Call us at (416) 999-8389. Even if we cannot represent you on your Legal Aid certificate, we will be sure to refer you a highly competent lawyer who can.
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