Legal Aid Manitoba will hike its hourly wages by 40 per cent in an attempt to boost the number of private bar lawyers representing the province's poorest people, the Free Press has learned.
Lawyers handling criminal and family law matters for the government-funded organization will now receive $80 per hour, up from the $57 per hour they've received for the past three years.
Mario Santos, chairman of the Legal Aid management council, says rates paid to private lawyers are going up in a move that will improve access to the court system for Manitoba's poor.
Mario Santos, chairman of Legal Aid's management council, said it's an important step in the right direction after years of stagnant rates saw Manitoba's pay for Legal Aid cases fall to the bottom of the pack across Canada.
"We hope more lawyers will take on Legal Aid cases and low-income clients will have as much access to justice as somebody who can afford to pay a lawyer privately," he said. "We're all citizens of the same province."
Santos said he's particularly optimistic the rate hike will improve the situation in northern communities such as Thompson, Dauphin, Swan River and The Pas, where Legal Aid Manitoba has had to fly in lawyers to handle cases.
Legal Aid Manitoba handles more than 21,000 cases annually, split evenly between its 61 in-house lawyers and private bar lawyers. The in-house lawyers are not currently getting raises.
At the end of March, there were 225 private bar lawyers who had taken on at least one Legal Aid case in the previous 12 months, down 10 from a year ago and fewer than half of what Legal Aid Manitoba had at its disposal eight years ago.
In order to qualify for Legal Aid in the province, a person's annual income can't exceed $14,000.
Santos said his goal is to have between 350 and 375 lawyers taking on "a steady stream" of cases.
Allan Fineblit, CEO of the Law Society of Manitoba, said he thinks the wage increase will have a "significant" effect on the number of lawyers willing to take on Legal Aid files.
"I hope not only will it retain lawyers who are doing Legal Aid work now but also attract some lawyers who are making decisions about what to do at early stages of their careers and senior lawyers who will make themselves available to take on cases where their experience is needed," he said.
Fineblit said from a purely financial point of view, few lawyers will turn down corporate work that pays $300 per hour to take on a Legal Aid file, but some will do so out of a commitment to social justice and fairness.
Justice Minister Dave Chomiak said he's optimistic the rate hike will at least stabilize the situation with private bar lawyers. He said the pay is comparable to Legal Aid work in other Western provinces.
Evan Roitenberg, president of the Criminal Defence Lawyers' Association of Manitoba, agreed. He said he will be sending out a note to the 80 lawyers he represents to let them know of the change and to encourage them to take on a Legal Aid file or two.
He said single mothers facing custody proceedings for their children, spouses in divorce proceedings who don't have financial backing from their families and people accused of serious offences often have no choice but to fall back on Legal Aid.
Roitenberg said having more lawyers doing Legal Aid work will benefit everybody and reduce the current backlog in the court system.
Santos said the fact Legal Aid Manitoba didn't raise its tariff a single time in the 1990s resulted in "major grievances with lawyers."
Santos said many lawyers balked at Legal Aid work because the pay often wouldn't cover their overhead costs associated with the case.
"Access to justice was diminishing because lawyers couldn't afford to do Legal Aid cases, not because they didn't want to," he said.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
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