Duty counsel services

Duty counsel are legal aid lawyers who provide services without charge to unrepresented individuals who, in many cases, are about to make an appearance in court. Typically, the services provided by a lawyer at a location other than a legal aid office, generally at court or a place of detention.Footnote 16 Most often, the services provided are brief, and pertain to provision of summary services, docket court appearances, bail hearings, or representation at a first appearance or plea court.

As a result of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. BrydgesFootnote 17, all provinces and territories offer temporary access to criminal duty counsel through telephone in the immediate period after an accused has been arrested or detained. These services are provided to accused persons without application, and they are free of charge.

For criminal matters, duty counsel services (either Brydges telephone services, remote/hybrid, or in person court services) are available in all provinces and territories. Civil duty counsel services are available in six provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia offers family duty counsel, which is referred to as summary advice counsel), New Brunswick, Ontario (Ontario offers family duty counsel, tenant duty counsel is offered through the clinic system), Manitoba (for child protection matters), and British Columbia. Immigration and refugee duty counsel services are available in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and British Columbia.

Most provinces and territories do not apply eligibility criteria for duty counsel services. Of those that do, New Brunswick applies scope of service eligibility criteria, but not financial eligibility criteria,Footnote 18 while Ontario applies financial and legal eligibility criteria which are outlined on their website.Footnote 19 British Columbia applies financial eligibility criteria only to family duty counsel services.Footnote 20

Over 1.4 million duty counsel assists were provided in 2023-24

There were 1,418,093 duty counsel assists provided to legal aid clients in 2023-24. Of these, 89% were for criminal matters, and 11% were for civil matters (including I&R). Figure 12 shows that the number of duty counsel assists has been on a gradual upward trend since 2020-21 when the number declined significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023-24 the number of criminal duty counsel assists surpassed pre-pandemic levels, up 22% compared to 2019-20 and 14% from 2022-23. Civil duty counsel assists were still below pre-pandemic levels in 2023-24 but are trending upwards – up 19% compared to 2022-23.

Over 156 million dollars spent on duty counsel services in 2023-24

Nationally, there were total expenditures of $156,574,751 (not adjusted for inflation) for duty counsel services in 2023-24. This was an increase of 16% from the previous year, and 37% compared to 2019-20 (Figure 12). Using unadjusted 2023-24 data, criminal duty counsel services represented the highest proportion of duty counsel expenditures, at $120,832,903, or 77% of total expenditures in 2023-24. Civil duty counsel service expenditures of $33,926,405 in 2023-24 made up 22% of total expenditures. Within criminal duty counsel services, 97% of expenditures went towards adult matters (Table 10).

Figure 12

Duty counsel assists and expenditures continued an upward trend in 2023-24, mostly surpassing pre-pandemic levels –expenditures were up 37% and duty counsel assists were up 18% compared to 2019-20.

Figure 12
Text version

There is a vertical bar graph showing duty counsel services and expenditures by type of matter. There are five different categories based on year from 2019-2020 to 2022-2023. Each bar is divided into two sections. The dark orange sections represent the number of criminal duty counsel assists and the medium orange section represents the number of civil duty counsel assists. There is also a trendline plotting the amount of duty counsel expenditures in millions colored in turquoise.

The first bar shows duty counsel services and expenditures for 2019-2020. The dark orange section of this bar shows 1,036,525 criminal duty counsel assists and the medium orange section 168,532 civil duty counsel assists. The duty counsel expenditure for this year is $116.63 million.

The second bar shows duty counsel services and expenditures for 2020-2021. The dark orange section of this bar shows 670,286 criminal duty counsel assists and the dark orange section 71,796 civil duty counsel assists. The duty counsel expenditure for this year is $105.40 million.

The third bar shows duty counsel services and expenditures for 2021-2022. The dark orange section of this bar shows 836,147 criminal duty counsel assists and the medium orange section 92,480 civil duty counsel assists. The duty counsel expenditure for this year is $117.68 million.

The fourth bar shows duty counsel services and expenditures for 2022-2023. The dark orange section of this bar shows 1,109,380 criminal duty counsel assists and the dark orange section 131,842 civil duty counsel assists. The duty counsel expenditure for this year is $138.27 million.

The fifth bar shows duty counsel services and expenditures for 2023-2024. The dark orange section of this bar shows 1,261,107 criminal duty counsel assists and the medium orange section 156,986 civil duty counsel assists. The duty counsel expenditure for this year is $159.84 million.

Source: Table 9 - Duty counsel services, by type of matter, 2019-20 to 2023-24; and Table 10 - Duty counsel service expenditures, by type of matter, 2019-20 to 2023-24. (Figure uses constant 2024 dollars calculated on March 19, 2025).