Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Revenues and expenditures
- Legal aid applications
- Duty counsel services
- Appeals
- Legal aid clients
- Cases and expenditures
- Immigration and refugee legal aid
- Legal aid plan personnel
- Impact of Race and Culture Assessments
- Additional funding to support the delivery of criminal legal aid
List of tables
- Table 1 - Legal aid plan revenues, by type of revenue, annual, 2023-24
- Table 2a - Legal aid plan expenditures, by type of expenditure, 2023-24
- Table 2b - Total administrative and other costs, 2023-24
- Table 3 - Legal aid applications received, by type of matter, 2023-24
- Table 4 - Legal aid applications approved for full legal representation, by staff and private bar lawyers, annual, 2023-24
- Table 5 - Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, all legal aid matters, 2023-24
- Table 6 - Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, criminal matters, 2023-24
- Table 7 - Refused legal aid applications, by reason for refusal, civil matters, 2023-24
- Table 8 - Applications for full legal representation, approved and refused, by self-identified Indigenous population, criminal and civil, and province/territory, 2023-24
- Table 9 - Duty counsel services, by type of matter, 2023-24
- Table 10 - Duty counsel service expenditures, by type of matter, 2023-24
- Table 11 - Appeal applications, approved and refused, for legal aid services, by criminal and civil matters, 2023-24
- Table 12 - Legal aid clients, by age, gender, and type of matter, Canada, 2023-24
- Table 13 - Indigenous legal aid clients receiving full legal representation and summary services, by gender and type of matter, 2023-24
- Table 14 - Criminal legal aid cases by type of offence and in-year expenditures, adults, Canada, 2023-24
- Table 15 - Criminal legal aid cases by type of offence and in-year expenditures, youth, Canada, 2023-24
- Table 16 - Immigration and refugee legal aid certificates and expenditures, by province and type of lawyer, 2023-24
- Table 17 - Legal aid service delivery by private bar, staff, and other lawyers, 2023-24
- Table 18 - Legal aid plan personnel as of March 31, 2024
- Table 19 - Criminal legal aid funding, 2023-24
List of figures
- Figure 1 – Legal aid plan revenues surpassed pre–pandemic levels in 2023-24 with total revenues up 24% compared to 2019-20
- Figure 2 – In 2023-24 legal aid plan expenditures were on par with pre –pandemic levels, down just 1% compared to 2019-20
- Figure 3 – Criminal matters made up just over half of the 585,982 legal aid applications received in 2023-24
- Figure 4 – In 2023-24 the number of legal aid applications received was up 14% from the previous year, and surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 4% compared to 2019-20
- Figure 5 – In 2023-24 the number of legal aid applications received was up 14% from the previous year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels by 4% compared to 2019-20
- Figure 6 – Application approval rates have mostly been stable over time, however in 2023-24 approval rates for all application types continued a slight upwards trend
- Figure 7 – Eighty-six percent of adult criminal applications were approved; while almost all youth criminal applications were approved due to eligibility criteria that prioritizes youth
- Figure 8 – Applications for immigration and refugee matters had an approval rate higher than other types of matters, with 94% of applications approved
- Figure 9 – Applications for child protection matters had the highest rate of approval among other civil matters, with just over 9 in 10 approved
- Figure 10 – The proportion of legal aid applications refused for financial eligibility continued a downward trend in 2023-24, while other refusal categories increased slightly
- Figure 11 – Just under 9 in 10 self-identified Indigenous clients were approved for criminal legal aid
- Figure 12 – Duty counsel assists and expenditures continued an upward trend in 2023-24, mostly surpassing pre-pandemic levels – expenditures were up 37% and duty counsel assists were up 18% compared to 2019-20
- Figure 13 – Legal aid applications for appeal proceedings were more often approved for services for civil matters compared to criminal matters
- Figure 14 – Males aged 18-34 years made up the highest proportion of legal aid clients overall
- Figure 15 – Males aged 18-34 years made up the highest proportion of criminal legal aid clients
- Figure 16 – Females aged 18-49 years made up just over two out of five civil legal aid clients
- Figure 17 – Indigenous males made up three quarters of Indigenous criminal legal aid clients, while Indigenous females made up more than two-thirds of Indigenous civil legal aid clients
- Figure 18 – For adult criminal cases, homicides and sexual assault cases had disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume
- Figure 19 – For youth criminal cases, homicides had disproportionately high case expenditures in relation to case volume while assaults had the opposite variance
- Figure 20 – Immigration and refugee legal aid caseloads and expenditures continued an upwards trend in 2023-24, increasing by roughly 50% compared to 2022-23
- Figure 21 – The legal aid plans located in the Atlantic provinces, Saskatchewan, and Yukon operate predominantly under a staff lawyer service delivery model
- Figure 22 – Most lawyers delivering legal aid services provide both civil and criminal services, and this is particularly true for staff lawyers where close to two thirds provide both types of services
- Figure 23 – Legal aid plan personnel include a variety of staff, with intake/support workers making up the largest cohort outside of the private bar
- Figure 24 – Almost 90% of IRCAs funded over the past 3 years were from Ontario and Nova Scotia, which were the first jurisdictions to receive federal funding for IRCAs
- Figure 25 – Specialized courts are used in all provinces and territories and provide invaluable services to legal aid clients
- Date modified: