CBA Position on Legal Aid
A decade of cutbacks has left Canada’s legal aid system in crisis. The CBA has launched a major national initiative to raise awareness of the importance of adequate legal aid services to our system of justice and to try to resolve the crisis.
The CBA believes that lawyers have a responsibility to:
- actively support legal aid programs
- speak out against threats to state-funded counsel, including underfunding of legal services and funding cutbacks, and
- contribute to a positive dialogue on how to improve legal aid service delivery.
The CBA has five-point platform on legal aid reform:
- Legal aid should be recognized as an essential public service, like health care.
- Public funding should be confirmed as necessary to ensure access to justice for low-income people.
- Public funding for legal aid must be increased.
- National standards for criminal and civil legal aid coverage and eligibility criteria are required.
- The federal government should revitalize its commitment to legal aid.
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EPIIgram
Legal aid: make the case (October 2003)
The CBA's Legal Aid Watch (May 2000) |