Cases and expenditures

Tables 14 and 15 provide a breakdowns of adult and youth criminal legal aid cases that were approved for full legal representation, and incurred expenditures in 2022-23, in addition to cases that were ongoing from previous years and incurred expenditures in 2022-23. These are broken down by general offence categories, as well as the proportion of in-year expenditures dedicated to each offence category. Note that the offence categories do not refer to specific offences under the Criminal Code. Rather, they represent groupings of similar offence types.

Other offences was the most frequent offence category, with the highest proportion of in-year expenditures for adult criminal legal aid

The category other offences made up the highest proportion of both in-year expenditures at 23% and case volume at 26% in 2022-23. Assault made up the next highest proportion of case volume at 22% (17% of in-year expenditures). The next most common offence category was theft, break and enter, possession of stolen property (18% of case volume and 12% of in-year expenditures) (Figure 18).

Figure 18 shows that there were a few categories of offences that made up a very small proportion of case volumes, but a comparatively higher proportion of in-year expenditures. These included homicide, which accounted for 1% of cases, but 13% of in-year expenditures and sexual assault, which made up 4% of case volume and 8% of expenditures. The reverse is true for breach of probation offences, which made up a high proportion of case volume (10%), but a relatively low proportion of expenditures (4%).

Figure 18. For adult criminal cases, homicides and sexual assault cases have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume.

Figure 18. For adult criminal cases, homicides and sexual assault cases have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume.
Figure 18. For adult criminal cases, homicides and sexual assault cases have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume. – Text version

This a clustered bar chart. The vertical axis on the left lists offence categories: homicide, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, arson, narcotics, theft/B&E/stolen property, impaired driving, other driving offences, assault, breach of probation, administration of justice, and other offences.

The legend indicates that the dark purple bars represent “% of cases” while the light purple bar represents “% of expenditures”.

The bars start at homicide where the dark purple bar is 1% and the light purple bar is 13%.

At sexual assault, the dark purple bar is at 4% while the light purple bar is at 8%.

At robbery, the dark purple bar is at 3% while the light purple bar is at 4%.

At kidnapping, both bars converge at 1%.

At arson, both bars are at 0%.

At narcotics, the dark purple bar is at 7% and the light purple bar is at 8%.

At theft, B&E, stolen property, the dark purple bar is at 18% and the light purple bar is at 12%.

At impaired driving, the dark purple bar is at 3% and the light purple is at 2%.

At other driving offences, both bars are at 1%.

At assault, the dark purple bar is at 22% and the light purple bar is at 17%.

At breach of probation, the dark purple bar is 10% and the light purple bar is 4%.

At administration of justice, both bars are at 5%

At other offences, the dark purple bar is at 26% and the light purple bar is at 23%.

Assault was the most frequent offence category, with the highest proportion of in-year expenditures for youth criminal legal aid

Figure 19 shows that the case volume (proportion of cases) is largely in line with expenditures for youth offences, and the differences for youth cases are very similar to adults. Other offences made up the highest proportion of case volume (31%) and the highest proportion of in-year expenditures (26%), followed by assault which made up 29% of cases, and 23% of in-year expenditures in 2022-23. Theft, break and enter, possession of stolen property and sexual assault were the next two most common offence categories with 11% and 10% of case volumes respectively; however the expenditures reflect the differing levels of complexities of these cases, with theft, break and enter, possession of stolen property expenditures at 9% while sexual assault expenditures were at 14% of in-year expenditures.

The main outlier was homicide cases, which made up a very small proportion of case volume, but a comparatively higher proportion of in-year expenditures, accounting for 1% of cases but 8% of in-year expenditures.

Figure 19. For youth criminal cases, homicides have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume while assaults and ‘other offences’ have the opposite variance.

Figure 19. For youth criminal cases, homicides have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume while assaults and ‘other offences’ have the opposite variance.
Figure 19. For youth criminal cases, homicides have disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume while assaults and ‘other offences’ have the opposite variance. – Text version

This a clustered bar chart. The vertical axis on the left lists offence categories: homicide, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, arson, narcotics, theft/B&E/stolen property, impaired driving, other driving offences, assault, breach of probation, administration of justice, and other offences.

The legend indicates that the dark purple bars represent “% of cases” while the light purple bar represents “% of expenditures”.

The bars start at homicide where the dark purple bar is 1% and the light purple bar is 8%.

At sexual assault, the dark purple bar is at 10% while the light purple bar is at 14%.

At robbery, both bars are at 7%.

At kidnapping, the dark purple bar is at 0% and the light purple bar is at 1%.

At arson, the dark purple bar is at 1% and the light purple is at 0%.

At narcotics, the dark purple bar is at 3% and the light purple bar is at 5%.

At theft, B&E, stolen property, the dark purple bar is at 11% and the light purple bar is at 9%.

At impaired driving, both bars are at 1%.

At other driving offences, both bars are at 1%.

At assault, the dark purple bar is at 29% and the light purple bar is at 23%.

At breach of probation, the dark purple bar is 3% and the light purple bar is 1%.

At administration of justice, the dark purple bar is 2% and the light purple bar is 4%.

At other offences, the dark purple bar is at 31% and the light purple bar is at 26%.