Legal Aid in Alberta
The Law Society of Alberta serves the public interest by promoting a high standard of legal services and professional conduct through the governance and regulation of an independent legal profession. We are a self-governing association of over 8500 practising lawyers and have been regulating the legal profession since 1907. The Society is financed and maintained by Alberta lawyers at no cost to the public.
Legal Aid Funding Concerns
Funding for Legal Aid comes from the provincial and federal governments, and the Alberta Law Foundation. The amount provided by the Foundation (which is independent from the Law Society) is set by a statutory formula as 25% of the amount remitted to the Foundation by financial institutions as interest on lawyers’ trust accounts. As a result of a significant portion of Legal Aid’s annual funding being tied to market fortunes in this way, Legal Aid has experienced a funding shortfall of nearly $10 million or 15% of its budget.
Legal Aid Alberta has been forced to cut service elements and has lowered the maximum income allowable to qualify for legal aid assistance. The maximum allowable annual net income for a single to qualify is now $14,700. In relation, the low income cut-offs after tax in 2009 for a single person was $18,421 in a city of 500,000 or more (Statistics Canada).
The Law Society is concerned about Legal Aid Alberta’s ability to deliver services for the following reasons:
- Access to justice is necessary in a functioning democracy. The legal aid system provides access to justice for citizens without the necessary means to retain a lawyer
- A properly functioning justice system, including a properly functioning legal aid system, is the responsibility of every citizen.
- The Law Society has an over-riding duty to guard the independence of the regulation and governance of legal services in the public interest.
While it’s possible that the Foundation will again be able to provide an improved level of funding to Legal Aid as the economy recovers, it is highly unlikely that the Foundation’s floating annual contribution will be a consistent source of funding which Legal Aid can depend on.
The Law Society believes that the current funding shortfall, which affects the ability of Legal Aid to deliver services, has huge but hidden economic costs to the province. Some of the downstream costs are:
- The average cost of putting an adult in a correctional facility in Alberta is $65,000.
- Increased federal sentencing has led to increases in the cost of operational correctional facilities by 25%.
The number of legal aid applications in Alberta is increasing. The 2010 report on Legal Aid in Canada: Caseload from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics shows that Alberta saw the highest increase in total legal applications of the four western provinces. Alberta experienced an 8% increase from 45,398 total applications in 2007/2008 to 49,145 total applications in 2008/2009.
Legal Aid Alberta directly contributes to reductions in public costs by reducing the number of cases which may come to trial, reducing the recourse to incarceration, tacitly promoting rehabilitative programs and reintegration, improving Albertan’s experience of the justice system, and significantly reducing the potential for re-offence.
In line with the Safe Communities Initiative and the goals of each partner ministries, Legal Aid provides access to justice through representation and advice for those Albertans in need.
- The Legal Aid program is an important part of establishing and maintaining safe communities in Alberta.
- Securing stable and dependable funding for Legal Aid is central to the mandate of the Safe Communities initiative.
- No community is safe if it does not make justice available to all members.
Summary
We believe securing stable and dependable funding for Legal Aid is central to the mandate of the Safe Communities initiative.
To be clear, the Law Society has no direct control over the funding or operation of the legal aid program.
The Law Society of Alberta has and continues to advocate for a properly resourced and effective legal aid system. The Law Society is committed to promoting access to justice for all Albertans.