Using the services of a lawyer when you have few means

Do you need a lawyer to represent you in your legal proceedings, but you don’t think you can afford the costs? Legal aid, a limited mandate or a retainer for costs are solutions that can allow you to use the services of a lawyer free of charge or at low cost.

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You can benefit from 4 hours of free legal consultations with a lawyer from the Rebuild program, regardless of your income. This service is confidential and bilingual.

Legal aid

Legal aid is a public service that allows you to be represented by a lawyer free of charge or at low cost throughout your divorce or separation proceedings.

To find out if you can benefit from it, you must first make an appointment at a legal aid office to apply for eligibility.

During this appointment, your financial situation will be assessed. Your income, your scholarships, the money in your bank accounts, your TFSAs and RESPs, your real estate properties with their mortgages as well as your childcare costs will be taken into consideration.

At the ed of this meeting, three scenarios are possible:

You are eligible for the free component and therefore have no fees to pay,

You are eligible for the contributory component and must pay fees ranging from $100 to $800,

You are not eligible and therefore cannot benefit from the service.

If you are eligible for one of the two components (free or contributory), you will be able to choose the lawyer who will represent you and he will be paid by the Legal Services Commission. So, this could be a lawyer working in a legal aid office or a lawyer in a private office accepting legal aid mandates.

A lawyer who accepts your legal aid mandate cannot at any time ask you to pay him for his services, even if you are eligible for the contributory component. You must pay your contribution directly to the Legal Services Commission, which will be responsible for paying your lawyer’s fees.

A lawyer for part of the case only

If you are not eligible for legal aid, you have very few options for free representation by a lawyer. Indeed, it is rare to find a family law lawyer who agrees to take charge of a case free of charge.

In order to limit your legal fees, you can choose to entrust only part of your file or only certain tasks to a lawyer. This is called the “limited scope mandate” . For example, you could ask the lawyer to draft your legal request or help you prepare for your next hearing.

The advantage of this type of mandate lies in its low cost. Since the lawyer does not represent you fully, he works fewer hours on your case and this is reflected in his invoice . Additionally, he can often tell you in advance the total amount he will charge you for his work. You thus maintain better cost control and benefit from a “tailor-made” service.