{"id":51481,"date":"2015-06-09T01:06:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T17:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=51481"},"modified":"2015-06-09T01:06:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T17:06:34","slug":"ontario-expands-legal-aid-services-to-help-more-low-income-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/09\/ontario-expands-legal-aid-services-to-help-more-low-income-residents\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario expands legal aid services to help more low income residents"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TORONTO \u2013 Legal Aid Ontario says increased government funding announced in this year’s budget will mean expanded services for about 400,000 low-income residents.<\/p>\n

People charged with crimes who don’t face potential jail time but may be hit with “secondary consequences” such as loss of a job or public housing could be eligible for legal aid.<\/p>\n

Others could qualify for legal aid if a conviction would have a significant impact on access to family and child custody, if they face a risk of deportation or a risk of being added to the sexual offenders registry.<\/p>\n

It will also be easier for adults with no prior criminal record to qualify for legal aid, especially if they are First Nation, Metis or Inuit, have a mental illness or are a victim of domestic violence charged with an offence related to the victim’s partner.<\/p>\n

Some people will be able to get legal aid to help with bail hearings to reduce the number of people in custody as they wait for a trial and to help ensure that fewer people plead guilty simply to get out of jail.<\/p>\n

Officials say the decision on bail often inappropriately affects an accused’s decision to plead guilty, because the longer a person spends in custody, the more likely that person is to plead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Legal Aid Ontario says increased government funding announced in this year’s budget will mean expanded services for about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","mauthors-the-canadian-press1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}