TARIFF AND BILLING HANDBOOK TARIFF AND BILLING HANDBOOK 1-1 Type Content Title: Tariff and billing handbook Author: Legal Aid Ontario: Lawyer Services & Payments Published: October 2007 Updated: December 2020 Table of contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 5 LAO contact information ......................................................................................................... 5 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Statutory Mandate ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Vision ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Values .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.4 Lawyers and Legal Aid Ontario .................................................................................... 2 1.5 About this handbook ..................................................................................................... 3 1.6 Resources for Lawyers ................................................................................................. 4 1.7 Accepting Certificates ................................................................................................... 7 1.8 Refusing Certificates .................................................................................................... 8 1.9 The Lawyer’s Obligations ............................................................................................. 8 1.10 Contacting the Area Office ...................................................................................... 10 1.11 Expired and Cancelled Certificates ......................................................................... 12 1.12 Change of Solicitor .................................................................................................. 13 1.13 Other Legal Aid Policies .......................................................................................... 14 1.14 French Language Services ..................................................................................... 17 2 Hourly tariff and block fee billing .................................................................................... 1 2.1 The Certificate .............................................................................................................. 1 2.2 Remuneration ............................................................................................................... 4 2.3 Account Payment Timelines ....................................................................................... 19 TARIFF AND BILLING HANDBOOK 1-2 2.4 General Rules and Practices ...................................................................................... 20 2.5 Billing Procedures ....................................................................................................... 26 2.6 Billing Deadlines ......................................................................................................... 31 2.7 Billing Interim, Final or Supplementary Accounts ....................................................... 32 2.8 Discretion Payments in Exceptional Circumstances ................................................... 35 2.9 Questioning the settlement of an account .................................................................. 49 2.10 Block Fees – Phase II ............................................................................................. 51 2.11 Who can Bill Block Fee Matters .............................................................................. 82 3 Criminal tariff ..................................................................................................................... 1 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 3.2 Tariff Maximums ........................................................................................................... 3 3.3 Table A: Summary conviction offences or Crown election offences where the matter proceeds summarily (except sexual assault) ......................................................................... 4 3.4 Table B: Indictable Type 1 offences, Crown Election offences where the matter proceeds by indictment, and all charges of sexual assault regardless of Crown elections .... 7 3.5 Table C: Indictable Type 2 .......................................................................................... 10 3.6 Table D: Provincial offences and federal summary convictions .................................. 12 3.7 Table E: Summary conviction appeals (in the Superior Court of Justice) ................... 14 3.8 Table F: Appeals to the Ontario Court of Appeal ........................................................ 15 3.9 Table G: Appeals to Supreme Court of Canada ......................................................... 16 3.10 Table H: Maximum Hours Table – Other Matters .................................................... 17 3.11 Additional Information .............................................................................................. 18 3.12 Criminal Case Management .................................................................................... 32 3.13 Big Case Management ............................................................................................ 36 3.14 List of Offences ....................................................................................................... 37 4 Civil tariff ........................................................................................................................... 1 4.1 Tariff Maximums ........................................................................................................... 1 4.2 General notes ............................................................................................................... 1 4.3 Family Law Tariff .......................................................................................................... 3 4.4 Table A: Family Law ..................................................................................................... 8 TARIFF AND BILLING HANDBOOK 1-3 4.5 Child Protection Tariff (CYFSA) .................................................................................. 11 4.6 Child Protection and Case Management ................................................................... 12 4.7 Table B: Child Protection ............................................................................................ 14 4.8 Table C: Civil Litigation ............................................................................................... 16 4.9 Table D: Trials, References and Hearings .................................................................. 19 4.10 Table E: Appeals ..................................................................................................... 21 4.11 Table F: Immigration and Refugee Law .................................................................. 23 4.12 Table G: Administrative Board of Tribunals ............................................................. 28 4.13 Table H: Other Civil Matters .................................................................................... 30 4.14 Group and Test Case Certificates ........................................................................... 31 5 Travel tariff ........................................................................................................................ 1 5.1 General ......................................................................................................................... 1 5.2 Travel Disbursements ................................................................................................... 4 5.3 Travel for Others ........................................................................................................... 7 6 Cost and contributions ..................................................................................................... 1 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 6.2 Costs ............................................................................................................................ 2 6.3 Settlements and Judgments ......................................................................................... 8 6.4 Contribution Agreements ............................................................................................ 11 6.5 Negotiating a Settlement ............................................................................................ 14 7 Forms ................................................................................................................................. 1 TARIFF AND BILLING HANDBOOK 1-4 Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the many hours of work that have gone into revising this manual. In particular we’d like to thank all the staff of the Lawyer Services and Payments Department and Communications department who drafted and reviewed the updated chapters. LAO contact information Legal Aid Ontario 40 Dundas Street West, Suite 200 Toronto ON M5G 2H1 Phone: 416-979-2352 Toll free: