Appeals

Nine in ten applications for legal aid services to deal with an appeal were approved

Out of the 12,177 applications in 2023-24 for legal aid services for an appeal case for any type of matter, 90% were approved for services (Table 11). Proportionally, there were more appeal applications for civil matters compared to criminal matters (84% of appeals were for civil matters, 16% were for criminal), which differs from non-appeal legal aid files which are dominated by criminal matters. For criminal matters, 73% of appeal applications were approved, and for civil matters, 93% were approved for legal aid services (Figure 13).

Ontario, Yukon, and Northwest Territories had the highest proportions of appeal cases approved for legal aid services (98%, 80% and 80%). In contrast, Manitoba and British Columbia had the highest rates of refusals for appeal cases–in Manitoba 58% of appeal cases were refused, and in British Columbia 49% were refused. For criminal cases, Prince Edward Island’s only reported appeal case was approved, and 90% of New Brunswick’s criminal appeal cases were approved. For civil cases, 99% of Ontario’s cases were approved, followed by 77% of appeal cases in Nova Scotia (Table 11).

Figure 13

Legal aid applications for appeal proceedings were more often approved for services for civil matters compared to criminal matters.

Figure 13
Text version

There is a horizontal bar chart showing appeal applications that were approved or refused for legal aid services for criminal and civil matters in 2023-2024. There are three different categories representing type of matter, going from top to bottom: all appeals received, criminal appeals, and civil appeals. Each bar has two categories, the dark orange bar represents approved appeals, and the medium orange bar represents refused appeals.

The first category represents all appeals and shows that 90% of all appeals were approved. The dark orange bar shows that 10,955 total appeals were approved, and the medium orange bar shows that 1,218 appeals were refused.

The second category represents criminal appeals and shows that 73% of civil appeals were approved. The dark orange bar shows that a total of 1,455 criminal appeals were approved, and the medium orange bar shows that 536 criminal appeals were refused.

The third category represents civil appeals and shows 93% of civil appeals were approved. The dark orange bar shows that a total of 9,500 civil appeals were approved, and the medium orange bar shows that 682 civil appeals were refused.

Source: Table 11 - Appeal applications, approved and refused, for legal aid services, by criminal and civil matters, 2023-24.