(Montreal) The Barreau du Québec has announced that a first agreement has been reached with the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, to increase the fees of lawyers in private practice who accept legal aid mandates.
Posted at 6:52 p.m.
“We have been in communication with the Department of Justice for a long time to increase the legal aid tariffs payable to our members because certain tariffs were obsolete”, indicated Thursday the Bâtonnière du Québec, Ms.e Catherine Claveau, to The Canadian Press, adding that “some members were discouraged from accepting legal aid mandates because they are losing money”.
Without going into the details of the agreement, the Bâtonnière explained that lawyers in private practice who accept legal aid mandates receive a fixed rate to take care of a case entirely, regardless of the number of hours they invest in a case, but that this first agreement with the Ministry of Justice will allow “an increase, a catch-up”.
This is another measure to increase access to justice for the most vulnerable people in society, so the more the lawyers will be sufficiently remunerated, the more they will accept this type of mandate to help the most deprived of society, it is important to remember that.
Me Catherine Claveau, President of Quebec
She specified that among the elements of the agreement are modifications aimed at compensating for the insufficiency of the current tariffs for lawyers in matters of criminal law, family law, youth law and immigration law.
She described this first agreement as “a preliminary and essential step towards a complete structural reform of legal aid in Quebec”.
The expiry of this agreement is scheduled for September 30, after which “a committee will be responsible for the next negotiation,” said the president of Quebec.
In 2020, the Barreau du Québec and the Minister of Justice agreed to create a working group to review the legal aid tariff structure for mandates entrusted to lawyers in private practice.
The conclusions of the “Final Report of the Independent Task Force on the Reform of the Legal Aid Fee Structure” were published last June and contained “14 recommendations considered to be priorities”.
In a press release published Thursday afternoon, Minister Jolin-Barette was pleased to “follow up quickly on the recommendations deemed priorities by the working group”.
The Minister added that “legal aid is a fundamental part of access to justice in Quebec. We are continuing to analyze the other recommendations. »