6.0 Conclusions

There is no single “system” of legal clinics in Canada. The existence of clinics in the country is marked by diversity in terms of their origins, their range and types of funders, their overall numbers, their geographic breadth, the legal matters they address, and the clients they serve.

While legal aid structures remain important for key criminal and family matters, the establishment of clinic systems has clearly broadened the range of legal issues that are addressed with clients. In many instances, clinics have strengthened the connection of service delivery with community agencies and boards, and in some settings have contributed to law reform. However, the continued realization of these benefits, and the possibility of clinics better responding to the needs of more rural/underserved populations, is dependent on the availability of consistent funding.

Law foundations, pro bono organizations (based on the volunteer commitment of private lawyers) and in some jurisdictions, provincial legal aid systems have given significant support to clinics. However, there is a real need for multi-year financial support from federal and provincial governments to ensure continuity of services. Although most clinic systems have been able to adjust positively to the virtual service modalities required during COVID-19, it is anticipated that there will be increased service demands that will result as individuals start to address legal issues they have put off during the pandemic. In the medium to longer term, there will be a need to compensate for diminishing financial revenues from law foundations (described in section 5.3.4).

Increased investment in clinic systems is likely to result in net financial benefits to government and communities because of savings that will result in other social service and health systems. However, this claim will remain hypothetical without support for the development of information management systems to capture client and community outcome data.