Opinion: Quebec legal aid needs major reform

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The Quebec Legal Aid Act was adopted in 1972 during an era when the government was seriously committed to improving the lives of the underprivileged.

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Since then, our legal aid regime has become outdated and unfair due to political complacency and chronic underfunding.

This is to the detriment of some of the most marginalized citizens in our society. Defining legal aid clients as “poor” is inappropriate. Most people are poor for a reason. Indigenous intergenerational trauma, systemic racism, depression and other mental health problems, struggles with alcoholism or substance abuse, medical problems and physical limitations, learning disabilities or illiteracy that compromise income potential – many things can make you poor, but not all are under your control. .

Quebec’s mixed legal aid regime offers those eligible the option of being represented by a government-employed attorney or by a private practice attorney who is paid by the government in accordance with an established fee schedule. Private practice lawyers represent 50%, and in some years up to 60%, of the total number of legal aid mandates issued in criminal matters.

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In 1972, Quebec funded the defense against any criminal charge, whether prosecuted by summary procedure or as an indictable offense, correctly believing that all criminal charges are serious. A conviction in any case creates a criminal record, the stigma of which carries life-altering consequences.

In the 1990s, governments backtracked on their promise to the underprivileged. Coverage for summary criminal offenses was abolished, unless a defendant could prove that a conviction would result in incarceration or loss of employment. Our federal government abandoned the vulnerable by cutting its share of the legal aid funding it had been providing to the provinces from roughly 50 percent to what it soon became and remains to this day at roughly 14 percent. hundred. Successive Quebec governments have done nothing to reverse this significant cut. Advocating for free legal aid does not pay political dividends.

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The Quebec block fee model pays attorneys a total of $ 400 for summary cases and $ 600 for actionable cases. Also, the fee is the same regardless of whether the case is closed by a plea deal or a judgment passed after a trial.

The legal aid fees paid to attorneys are extremely inadequate, which is why many of us rarely accept legal aid cases.

But that is not the most important issue here. The most serious problem with Quebec’s block rate model is its impact on the right of marginalized defendants to objective representation, to a strong defense.

Québec’s legal aid regime clearly encourages convictions.

The lockdown fee is earned faster and with much less effort if the legal aid client pleads guilty. This regime is lucrative for attorneys who generate a high volume of pleading clients. It is not certain that all legal aid clients who plead guilty in Quebec will do so because the record presents convincing evidence of guilt and that they comply with the statute. It is very possible that they are pleading guilty to crimes that they have not committed or that they have a debatable defense that does not go to trial. This is unacceptable.

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What is required is transformative change, not adjustments to a fundamentally flawed regime. The block rate system must be abandoned. We must reinvent and reinvent legal aid.

Compared to other provinces, Quebec’s legal aid is a national disgrace. Eight provinces operate legal aid systems that pay lawyers by the hour, which reasonably limits the number of hours lawyers can charge. Ontario’s hourly system pays lawyers roughly four times what Quebec pays.

The legal aid client could, one day, be you or someone you love. If Quebecers believe that all those accused of committing a crime, regardless of financial circumstances, deserve a fair day in court, this should include being represented by a properly funded attorney who will provide a vigorous defense.

There, except by the grace of God, I go.

Ralph Mastromonaco practices criminal law in Montreal.