The ReeveLaw Blog

1. Harper froze federal legal aid funding in this country a decade ago.
2. There also aren’t enough judges in Quebec or Alberta nor are there enough federal prosecutors in most provinces.
3. Public Works and Government Services Canada lets cases go to court with $1,000-an-hour lawyers rather than negotiating with the costs ending up on the Justice Department’s bill.
4. Harper has lost five major cases that ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
5. The Conservative government hasn’t been applying constitutional tests to legislation before it goes to Parliament.
6. Legislation related to child kidnapping would force judges to hand down a 4 year minimum mandatory jail sentence but at present judges are handing down 8 year sentences and more often than not, it’s 16 or 20 years if there is violence or a killing.
7. The Conservatives are promising to spend $20 million to help sex trade workers as part of their new prostitution law but that’s over five years across the 10 provinces and three territories and Harper could pass the money out to his favourite religious groups rather than women’s organizations or sex-trade worker associations.
etc.

The Hill: A peek at justice issues from the opposition side of the House.

In a nutshell: “Justice on Target is an initiative put forth to address long wait times and effectively reduce criminal court delays. Launched in 2008, JOT claims to have eliminated more than 500,000 criminal court appearances since its inception. However, Singh says the program is putting pressure on clients, especially those with low income. Charges that are less serious don’t qualify for legal aid coverage and this coupled with JOT pushing for quick resolutions is making clients plead guilty because they can’t afford a trial.”

It may look like a conspiracy but it’s not.  It’s all the same government trying to save money by pushing cases through court and doing its best to make sure you don’t get a lawyer, which we all know, slows things down.

MAG work ‘unsatisfactory,’ says NDP critic.

Could plugging every aspect of our lives into the internet eventually be the death of us?

An “Internet Murder” Could Happen By The End of This Year | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.

“Protecting Canadians from Online Crime” is a laudable goal but not when this Bill’s real purpose is to circumvent the Supreme Courts ruling preserving Canadians constitutional rights. Bill C-13 creates a new offence of non-consensual distribution of intimate images but in doing so includes provisions for the forfeiture of property, preservation demands of electronic information, new production orders, new warrants to extend investigative powers for data and to enable tracking of individuals and transactions, makes it easier for police to intercept private communications and makes a spouse a compellable witness, intruding further upon the sanctity and privacy of marriage relationships…and more.  It’s like using and elephant to stomp a mouse.

Bill C-13 | openparliament.ca.

Man walks into a drugstore wearing a hoodie and says to the clerk, this is a robbery, give me the money, I have a gun. Clerk was scared and handed over the money.  Man did not touch the clerk nor did he have a gun.  The Supreme Court of Canada has made the semantic leap that the implied threat that did not injure or put anyone in imminent danger was itself an ACT of violence. The court ruled that “all threats of violence are themselves violent, even though the seriousness of the violence may be quite limited.”

Unarmed robber’s threat — ‘I have a gun’ — was in itself a violent act: Supreme Court ruling | National Post.

I will restrict my comments to a criminal defence certificate issued by Legal Aid Ontario, because that’s what I know.

Legal Aid is broken and is broken upon the backs of  criminal defence lawyers.

A LA certificate provides complete payment to a lawyer for all necessary services to defend a criminal charge at the prescribed hourly rate for a limited number of hours.  It cannot be “topped up” by the client or any other source. There is no specific provision for the cost of overhead (office rent, secretarial salaries, cost of advertising and office supplies, equipment, etc.).  The rate of pay is so low (around 1/3 or so of the going rate for a privately retained lawyer) and the number of hours allowed so inadequate that lawyers cannot afford to stay in business exclusively on Legal Aid and we cannot afford to represent clients properly.  Imagine you needed your car repaired, or the roof of your house replaced.  To a lawyer, accepting a certificate is like getting paid $500 for a $1,000 repair job and having to pay our overhead on top. In reality, how does that work out – repair guy goes out of business or you get a shoddy repair?  Both.  Imagine if you were going into surgery and your doctor told you that it’s a 4 hours operation but he’s only getting paid for 2 hours, and has to pay for the operating room use, pay for the nurses time and bring his own surgical tools. Would you still go through with the surgery?

Even if you were eligible for a Legal Aid certificate, would you want to put your life and liberty in the hands of a lawyer under those circumstances?

LEGAL AID ONTARIO IS BROKEN

Technology will ultimately completely address the concerns of impaired driving, whether the impairment be from alcohol or drug consumption, distraction, inattention, stupidity, lack of skill or whatever. “The cars now being produced are stuffed with high-tech safety technologies that will allow the car to automatically avoid danger and even drive itself—if you fall asleep while driving, the car should be able to get you home safely.” Implementation is not far away. BMW and AUDI are working on autonomously driven cars.  INFINITI with it’s Q50 is almost there in a mass production vehicle.  GOOGLE is actually doing it in limited numbers.  Soon you’ll be able to really party on without worrying about getting home.  But until then, every motor vehicle should be mandatorily equipped by the manufacturer with ignition interlock devices.

via The Model D Is Tesla’s Most Powerful Car Ever, Plus Autopilot | WIRED.

Too much money goes to the bureaucrats and not to you.  Here are the facts:

BENEFITS OF WORKING AT LAO

Staff

Annual salary of $60,601 – $107,464 (non-management lawyers)
17 days paid vacation
Up to 32 weeks of pregnancy and parental leave
6 paid sick days per year with 5 to 120 days paid at 100% of pay with medical documentation
Choice of benefits package
LAO payment into health care spending account
80% of prescription drug costs up to $2,500/annum
Semi-private hospital accommodation
$25,000 private duty nursing/3 yrs
Paramedical practitioners up to $1000/annum
Basic life insurance
Dental benefits up to 100% reimbursement
Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance
Travel Insurance
LawPro insurance fully paid
Law Society membership fees fully paid
Employee and Family Assistance Program
Training opportunities/career development opportunities
Flexible working hours
Casual office attire
http://www.legalaid.on.ca/en/careers/careerbenefits.asp

Executive compensation (exclusive of earned bonuses)

Executive   Base Salary 2010 ($)  Base Salary 2011 ($)  Salary Increase (%)
Bob Ward CEO   226,000   264,000   17
Janet Budgell VP  148,000   168,000   14
David McKillop VP  156,000   175,000   12
Heather Robertson VP  156,000   175,000   12
Michelle Seguin VP  162,000   182,000  12

Managers

The public sector salary disclosure documents (2012 “Sunshine List” of those earning more than $100,000) reveal a dramatic increase in managers on the list. The number of managers listed has increased from 3 in 2007 to 19 in 2011 – a 533% increase.
http://laolawyers.ca/updates/inequities-abound-at-legal-aid-ontario/

BUT IF YOU EARN MORE THAN $10,800 A YEAR YOU’RE MAKING TOO MUCH!

“Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) received $354 million in funding during the 2010/11 fiscal year, with 76% of that coming from the provincial government. Additional funds came from the federal govern­ment under a cost-sharing agreement, from the Law Foundation of Ontario, and from clients whose income levels require them to help pay for legal assistance.” (Ontario Auditor’s Report 2011)

Firstly note that the federal government makes the criminal law and the provincial government builds the courthouses and pays the Crown Attorney’s to prosecute you and pays the Judges to judge you.  Secondly they don’t have enough money for lawyers to defend you and even if they did, do you really want a government paid lawyer, because with money comes control.

LAO however does seem to have plenty of money to pay themselves. “LAO incurred $47 million in expenditures on administration and other expenses.” (Ontario Auditor’s Report 2011)

If a certificate is issued to you, you can take that certificate to a lawyer of your choosing who is willing to accept that at the sole source of compensation for defending your criminal charge. According to the report less than ½ (49.17%) of LAO’s expenditures were for the issuance of certificates.

You will most likely NOT be granted a certificate is your annual gross individual income is over $10,800 AND you must be facing a likely (in their sole opinion) period of incarceration, if convicted, exceeding 90 days.

In other words, we won’t be issuing YOU a certificate, but here, have a cookie.  A cookie always makes you feel better.

The shame of LAO continues.

The shame of Legal Aid Ontario.