Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) has 4 free regional advice lines that give legal information and advice in French by phone to people living in:

• Greater Toronto Area
• Southwestern Ontario
• Eastern Ontario
• Northern Ontario and parts of central Ontario including Barrie, Parry Sound, and Muskoka and Kawartha Lakes regions

The advice lines do not help with family law or criminal law matters.

Tenant duty counsel help tenants who don’t have a lawyer on the day of their hearing with the Landlord and Tenant Board. The Landlord and Tenant Board is the tribunal that decides issues between landlords and tenants.

Duty counsel are lawyers and legal workers paid for by Legal Aid Ontario. They can:

• give legal advice
• review documents and prepare forms
• help tenants and landlords agree on issues
• sometimes represent tenants during a hearing

If you have a telephone hearing, you can usually talk to duty counsel when you call in for your hearing. Try to call at least 30 minutes early.

Legal Aid Ontario funds legal clinics across Ontario. There are two types of legal clinics: community legal clinics and specialty legal clinics.

Community legal clinics provide free legal services to people with low incomes who live in their area. Search for the clinic in your area using your postal code. Most help with:

• income assistance
• tenant rights
• employment problems

Some clinics can help with immigration and refugee problems or debt and consumer problems.

Some specialty legal clinics provide free legal services to specific groups of people with low incomes:

• Advocacy Centre for the Elderly
• Aboriginal Legal Services
• ARCH Disability Law Centre
• Black Legal Action Centre
• Centre Francophone du Grand Toronto
• Chinese and South Asian Legal Clinic
• Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples
• HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario
• Justice for Children and Youth
• South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario

Some specialty legal clinics provide free legal services in only certain areas of law:

• Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario
• Canadian Environmental Law Association
• Income Security Advocacy Centre
• Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario (IAVGO) Community Legal Clinic
• Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic
• Workers Health and Safety Legal Clinic

The Ontario Legal Information Centre offers a free 30-minute meeting with a lawyer to anyone in Ontario, online or by phone in English or French. The centre provides legal information on any legal topic, and referrals to services. Book a meeting online or call 1-844-343-7462 if you need help.

The Ontario Community Mediation Coalition is a group of community mediation providers that provide free help to resolve conflict or disagreements. Community mediation is not a legal process. Issues that may be suitable for community mediation include disputes between neighbours, landlords and tenants, and in schools and workplaces. They have a list of member organizations to contact if you’re interested in finding mediation services.

The hotline can give you 30 minutes of free legal help and advice over the telephone on civil law matters, which include:

• employment
• housing
• consumer issues
• Powers of Attorney
• corporate law for charities, non-profits, and small businesses

It doesn’t help with family law or criminal law problems.

The hotline generally accepts calls Monday to Friday between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

JusticeNet is a not-for-profit organization that can help people find legal services when their income is too high for legal aid and too low to afford legal fees. Their website has a list of lawyers, paralegals, and mediators who charge reduced fees based on your income and family size. You must register and pay a small fee to use their services.

CCHR is an organization that works with tenants mainly by telephone and email.

Tenants facing eviction can get information about the eviction process and services that can help them. Tenants renting in Toronto can also get help if their landlord has applied for a rent increase above the guideline, or help with maintenance and repair applications to the Landlord and Tenant Board.

CCHR’s human rights services include helping tenants who:

• are being discriminated against when looking for housing
• are being harassed
• need accommodation for a human rights reason, such as a disability
• want general information about human rights or the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

The Law Society of Ontario has an online Law Society Referral Service that gives you the name of a lawyer or licensed paralegal who will give free legal advice for up to 30 minutes in any area of law.

If you cannot wait for a lawyer or paralegal to call you back, or if you do not have a call-back number, email lsrs@lso.ca. If you’re in crisis or in custody, call 1-855-947-5255 or 416-947-5255, Monday to Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Landlord and Tenant Board is the tribunal that decides issues between landlords and tenants.

The Board’s website has information about housing law and forms that landlords and tenants must use.

You can also call the Board for information. The Board can’t give legal advice.

If you live in the Ottawa or Champlain region and have a disability, ABLE2’s Reach Legal Referral Services may be able to help. They can refer you to a lawyer or paralegal for up to 3 hours of free legal advice in any area of law. But they cannot help with urgent legal issues.

If ABLE2 cannot help, they may refer you to community resources.

Book a meeting online, or call 613-761-9522 extension 452 or 453. You can also email reachlegalreferral@able2.org.