Did you know that Legal Aid is not always free?
If you have a spouse and two (2) children or more, you could be eligible to Legal Aid with a contribution even if you work and have yearly incomes of $43 141.
If you wish to benefit from the services of an attorney paid by the Government, the first thing you have to do is to take an appointment with your local Legal Aid centre, so they can determinate if you are eligible to the service or not.
To determinate your eligibility, they will take in consideration your income, properties and liquidities, and the ones of your spouse as well. It is important to know that they eligibility scales adapted to your family situation. As an example, for a person that lives with children, the annual income accepted will be higher than for a person living alone.
You should also know that you might have to pay a contribution to benefit from the services of an attorney paid by the Government. This contribution can vary from $100 to $800 depending on your situation. For more information regarding your eligibility, we suggest you to click on the following link, which will lead you to the annual gross income eligibility scale of the Commission des Services juridiques http://www.csj.qc.ca/SiteComm/W2007English/Main_En_v4.asp .
If you are eligible to Legal Aid, with or without contribution, you have the choice to mandate an attorney of the Legal Aid or a private attorney that accepts Legal Aid mandates.
Be careful! You can only benefit from Legal Aid in certain situations. You can benefit from this service in family matters, youth protection and prosecution of criminal act. You can also benefit from this service in your claims regarding social assistance, automobile insurance, unemployment insurance and workman’s compensation. Finally, you can sometimes benefit from Legal Aid in criminal, civil and administrative matters depending on your situation. However, in some situations your demand will never be granted such as defending a parking ticket and initiating legal proceedings in a defamation (for the Plaintiff).
We accept the majority of the Legal Aid mandates regarding family and civil matters. We are inviting you to get in touch with us if you have a Legal Aid mandate regarding those matters, we will be pleased to represent your interests.
