(Quebec) The eligibility thresholds for legal aid in Quebec are increased as of this Tuesday by 5.6%, the percentage corresponding to that of the increase in the minimum wage from 1er last May.
Posted at 9:54 a.m.
The Chairman of the Commission des services juridiques, Daniel LaFrance, recalls that the 1er January 2016, the thresholds had been raised, with the minimum wage as a reference. As in subsequent years, the present indexation makes it possible to maintain the eligibility thresholds at this level.
The Commission specifies that a single person completing a 35-hour workweek at the minimum wage, ie $25,935 per year, has free access to a lawyer acting under the legal aid plan. In addition, the services are free for a family made up of two adults and two children whose income is less than $42,531.
The Quebec legal aid plan also includes a section for people whose income is between the free eligibility thresholds and the maximum thresholds with contribution.
According to Daniel LaFrance, this allows a litigant to be represented by a lawyer before the courts knowing, in advance, the maximum cost of the fees and expenses that could be claimed from him.
For example, the new legal aid eligibility scale with maximum thresholds with contribution, what we call the contributory component, is a maximum annual income of $36,228 for a single person, $44,315 for a family with one adult and one child and $56,406 for a family of two adults with one child.
The Commission des services juridiques is able to estimate for 2021-2022 that 23,429 applicants would not have been eligible for legal aid had it not been for the increase in the financial eligibility thresholds since 1er January 2014.