Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) announced on Friday that it is moving ahead with plans to create a Major Case Management Office.
This new division of the agency was established through the $150 million funding injection the province gave to LAO in September. Two job opportunities have been posted on the LAO website: one for a pair of full-time counsel/management positions, and another seeking tenders from private criminal litigators for future major cases.
Criminal Law Association President Frank Addario and William Trudell, chairman of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, condemned the latter posting as a boycott-busting tactic in an article in Saturday’s Globe, while an LAO spokesperson defended it as falling within the organization’s mandate to use “any method it considers appropriate” to connect persons in need with legal representation.
Criminal litigators whose applications are accepted will be assigned cases, managed and evaluated by the Major Case Management Office. Under the terms of the Service Agreement Contract, participating lawyers “will only refuse work because of conflicts, competence or availability within a reasonable period of time,” and will be eligible in some cases to receive a to-be-determined administration fee (the suggested fee is $2,000) “to reflect the impact on his or her practice of having to accept cases on short notice, perhaps delay or refuse other work or retain agents to handle existing cases.” There is also a general retainer of $5,000 “to cover all of their administrative costs in relation to maintaining availability, meeting with clients looking for counsel, and participating in Fisher applications [motions for fair compensation for lawyers who take on major cases].”