Legal Clinic

Overview

ONTA’s Legal Clinic Program is a first-of-its-kind clinic designed specifically for middle income and working-class tenants.

The rising cost of housing across the province has left tenants financially strapped. Many tenants who are working class or middle income pay a large proportion of their income on rent. For some, they spend more than 70% of their take-home pay on rent, which leaves very little money left over to pay the cost of a competent legal representative.

Unfortunately, due to Legal Aid Ontario’s low threshold for financial assistance, only a select few are able to access their services.

ONTA’s clinic was created to bridge the gap between people who would qualify for assistance through a legal aid funded clinic, and those who could afford the fees of a legal representative on their own without any type of assistance.

Eligibility

ONTA follows a needs-based eligibility criterion. We look at a variety of factors to determine eligibility:

1. Household income (Household Income is $100,000.00 or less)
2. Income to rent ratio (i.e. tenant pays more than 35% of their income on rent.)
3. Necessary household expenses (e.g. childcare, groceries, transit etc.)
4. Nature of case and risk of harm to the tenant
5. Tenants are also required to purchase a membership with ONTA to access our services.

How the Clinic Works

ONTA has partnered with six paralegals throughout the Greater Toronto Area to represent our members. The paralegals are assigned to a Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) Location. These paralegals offer significant discounts to ONTA Members.

At the current time, paralegals are assigned to the following Landlord and Tenant Board locations:

• Toronto East
• Toronto North
• Toronto South
• Whitby

ONTA paralegals may decide to attend other LTB locations.

Representation Fees

Service Fee – $400.00
Includes Initial Intake, Review of File, Preparation, and One Hearing Day. 
(No refund or partial refund is provided if a matter is resolved before hearing.) 

Additional Appearance – $175.00
Adjournment Request – $100.00

Other Fees

Response to simple email –  $25.00
Response to lengthy email –  $50.00
Phone call (Less than 10 mins) – $25.00
Phone call (More than 10 mins) – $50.00
Extra time that exceeds the average –  $50 hourly

Please note: In certain circumstances, paralegals may bill a client a flat fee for services if the client substantially or unnecessarily exceeds the average expected cost of providing these services to them. These fees may include responding to an excess amount of emails or telephones inquires.

Payment Plans Available
Paralegals will accept monthly payments over a period of five months, (interest-free), providing terms of payment are met.

Disbursements
Paralegals may seek reimbursement for their reasonable out of pocket expenses relating to a client’s case. These fees include, but are not limited to, filing fees, photocopying, postage etc.

Reduced Fees
Paralegals agree to reduce the above fees in order to facilitate affordable access to justice, where possible.

Future Goals

We constantly strive to improve our services, below are some of the ideas and plans we would like to implement in the future. We cannot guarantee that these will become available, but we are working hard to try and make them possible.

• The creation of a fund to subsidize fees and allow paralegals to be paid a minimum of $600 per matter.
  
  
• Agreements with Paralegals in every region across Ontario including:
  • Barrie
  • Hamilton
  • Guelph
  • Kingston
  • London
  • Mississauga
  • Newmarket
  • North Bay
  • Ottawa
  • Sudbury
  • Thunder Bay
  • Waterloo
  • Windsor
    
    
• Partnerships with lawyers to represent tenants at a discounted fee before appellate level courts (Divisional Court and Ontario Court of Appeal).