The Criminal Lawyers Association, which has been boycotting Legal Aid Ontario since June of 2009 to protest the hourly rate, has announced that it has reached an agreement with the province. Legal Aid will be increasing the hourly tariff for about 5% a year for the next few years.
The news release also says Legal Aid [...]

The Law Society of Manitoba recently approved a pilot project to make lawyers more accessible to those who often fall between the cracks of the legal system - the middle class, reported The Vancouver Sun.
While the poor in Manitoba have access to Legal Aid Manitoba, and the rich can simply write a cheque, many middle [...]

Here’s a sneak preview of the story:

Most solos are surprised by how much time and money they have to spend on advertising and marketing to attract clients. Wang estimates that a third of his budget in his first year was consumed by marketing. What makes spending on advertising especially tricky is that the results are often hit and miss.

“The [boycott] move was not taken lightly. Many lawyers consider legal aid cases a vocational duty. But over the last 15 years that duty has become an untenable burden,” Dylan Young recently wrote for the magazine Precedent.*
Some outsiders, including lawyers practising outside the Legal Aid Ontario system, saw the boycott by the Criminal Lawyers’ Association [...]

I have to admit, giving lawyers a raise has never been a popular cause. That being said, I do feel strongly that the chronic underfunding of LAO will eventually lead to its own demise.

It’s time to get rid of the baid-aid and put the stitches on.