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 centre gives free legal information and advice to people who have experienced discrimination. If you’re Indigenous, press 4 to reach the Indigenous Service intake staff. The centre can:

• help you fill out an application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
• give legal advice about how to deal with discrimination
• provide legal representation at mediations and hearings, in some situations

There is also an online tool that can help you figure out if your situation might be discrimination.

Legal Aid Ontario funds community legal clinics across Ontario. These clinics provide free legal services to people with low incomes who live in their area.

Some clinics help people with name and gender marker changes. Search for the clinic in your area using your postal code. If your clinic does not help with name or gender marker changes, they might commission documents for you.

These clinics help with name and gender marker changes:

• Hamilton Community Legal Clinic: call 905-527-4572 or fill out the Queer Justice Project’s online form
• Legal Clinic of Guelph & Wellington County: call 519-821-2100 or fill out the online form
• Niagara Community Legal Clinic: call 905-682-6635
• Halton Community Legal Services: call 905-875-2069 or fill out the online form
• Peterborough Community Legal Centre: call 705-749-9355
• Waterloo Region Community Legal Services: call 519-743-0254 or fill out the online form

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.

Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) is a community legal clinic that offers free legal services to Black Ontarians with low incomes. The clinic helps with police complaints and legal problems caused by anti-Black racism in the following areas of law:

• education
• employment
• housing
• human rights
• income assistance

For help, fill out BLAC’s intake form and email it to intake@blac.clcj.ca.

Toll Free for people in custody: 1-877-279-0680  or  1-844-302-2694 

The program is run by Pro Bono Students Canada and the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres. 

It offers free legal advice and information about human rights and discrimination to Indigenous people living in Thunder Bay and Ottawa. 

If you’re in Ottawa, contact the Odawa Native Friendship Centre or call 613-722-3811, extension 404. 

If you’re in Thunder Bay, contact the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre or call 807-345-5840, extension 9034. 

The Muslim Legal Support Centre (MLSC) is a legal clinic for Muslims who have low to modest incomes. MLSC offers free legal advice and other services in these areas:

• immigration
• family
• employment
• human rights
• housing
• criminal

To ask for legal help, you can complete MLSC’s intake form. Or you can call 416-350-2914 and leave a message for someone to call you back. MLSC also has free legal information sessions.

In Toronto, The 519 provides legal help, health and wellness programs, education, housing support, and other programming to 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

The 519 Legal Advice Clinic offers 30 minutes of free legal advice from a lawyer by phone or video conference about:

• criminal, employment, family, housing, human rights, health, income security, wills and estates, and civil law
• legal issues surrounding gender affirming care
• immigration and refugee law with a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity

The 519 also has other law-related programs like the:

• Trans ID clinic
• Mock Hearing Program for LGBTQ+ refugee claimants
• A2J Case Support Program for 2SLGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous, and racialized people who have a low income and are navigating the criminal or family law systems

For legal help, fill out the intake form, email LegalClinic@The519.org, or book a call.

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 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.

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.