Questions professionals ask
About the program, what it would mean for your practice, and what joining involves.
About the program
- What is JusticeNet?
JusticeNet is a Canadian not-for-profit that operates a directory and reduced-fee program. Participating lawyers, paralegals and mediators provide services through their own practices. JusticeNet does not provide legal advice or professional services.
JusticeNet does not assign, recommend or endorse any professional on its roster.
- Who are the clients?
People whose income is too high to qualify for Legal Aid and too low to afford standard rates.
Use the applicant's personal net income after income tax and their family household size to find the reduced rate. The existing income bands and hourly rates still apply. Below $70,000, the schedule provides a rate for every family-size band. From $70,000 through $90,000, it provides a rate for family households of three or more. Where the schedule provides no rate, you may choose to offer a reduced rate at your discretion; it is not promised to the client.
Personal net income is the applicant's own yearly income after income tax. Do not add a partner's, relative's or housemate's income, or a cash value for ordinary help with rent, groceries or other living costs. Family household size is a separate factor and includes the applicant; it is not just a count of dependants. Use your professional judgement to confirm who forms part of the applicant's family household.
The client is not required to be an Ontario resident or currently living in Ontario. What matters is that the matter is an Ontario one, as all roster members must be licensed in Ontario and take Ontario matters.
- Am I an employee, and is this pro bono work?
You participate as an independent professional in private practice, not as an employee of JusticeNet.
The work is paid at a reduced hourly rate, not given free.
What it would mean for your practice
- What would I charge?
- The published schedule runs from $80 to $130 per hour, selected by the client's personal net income and their family household size — below the rates for participating lawyers. You confirm the applicable rate and whether you will accept the matter.
- Do I have to accept every enquiry?
No. You control your own caseload and decide whether to accept each matter, using your usual conflict checks and professional judgement.
A listing is not an offer and is not proof of availability. You can pause new referrals at any time and resume when you are ready.
- Who decides whether a client qualifies?
- You do. JusticeNet does not make the final qualification decision. You may ask for financial or tax records, you may ask about assets, and you may decline reduced-fee work.
- What if the matter grows beyond what we agreed?
- If the scope later expands beyond the original retainer, you are not required to apply the reduced rate to the added work.
- How do clients reach me?
- People can search the public directory by location, area of practice and spoken language, then contact you directly. Some listings are accessible only to signed-in clients. A client must complete registration and obtain a membership number to use the JusticeNet reduced-fee program. You can check that number in your account. JusticeNet does not take a commission, and an enquiry does not create a professional-client relationship; you must agree to act.
- Which languages can clients filter by?
- The directory can be filtered by spoken language, including French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi, Urdu and Tamil. A language filter does not guarantee that a matching professional is listed nearby.
- Clients will give you a JusticeNet membership number. What is it, and what do I do with it?
- Every registered client has a JusticeNet membership number and is told to give it to you when they contact you, and to present it whenever you ask. Reduced fees under the JusticeNet program are available only to registered clients, and the number is how you confirm that someone is one: a person who has not been given a number — or who cannot give you theirs — is not a client under the program, and you are under no obligation to apply the reduced-fee schedule to them. In your account, "Client lookup" takes the number and shows you what the client declared to JusticeNet when they registered: their name, their address, the income and household figures recorded at registration, their declaration year, and the legal problem they described. Older records may contain family income and household size. The recorded family income is not automatically personal income. Confirm the applicant's current personal net income and family household size directly with them. JusticeNet does not verify what a client declares; you apply the income test under the Reduced Fee Schedule yourself, and you decide whether you can take the matter.
Consultations
- Am I required to offer a free initial consultation?
- No. JusticeNet does not require you to offer a free initial consultation. You may choose to offer one at your discretion. Confirm any consultation fee with the client before the appointment.
Joining
- What does a listing cost?
- No annual listing charge under the current profession policy.
- What do I need in order to register?
- We confirm your Law Society licence before your listing goes live.
- Where do I have to practise?
- Ontario. Participating professionals are licensed in Ontario and take Ontario matters. Someone living outside Ontario may still use JusticeNet for a matter that proceeds in Ontario; someone in Ontario cannot use the roster for a matter that proceeds elsewhere.
- Can I serve clients remotely?
- If you choose to. Some listed professionals work by phone or video, which lets people in areas with few local listings reach a professional in a larger centre. Coverage is thinnest in northern and rural Ontario.
- What matters fall inside a paralegal's scope?
- Ontario paralegal scope is based mainly on the court or tribunal rather than the subject of the dispute. It covers Small Claims Court matters up to the current fifty-thousand-dollar limit, Landlord and Tenant Board matters, provincial offences including traffic tickets and municipal bylaw charges, certain summary criminal charges, Human Rights Tribunal matters, employment, labour, workplace-safety, Ontario Works and disability-support tribunal matters, non-catastrophic automobile accident-benefit claims, and permitted administrative tribunals including the Immigration and Refugee Board. You confirm whether a particular matter is within your licence and practice.
Responsibility
- Who is responsible for the work?
- You are. Every service arrangement is between you and your client. JusticeNet is not a party to the retainer, cannot intervene in a dispute between a client and a listed professional, and directs conduct concerns to your regulator.
- Is my listing checked?
- Your listing content is yours to keep accurate. Where your profession requires it, JusticeNet confirms your licence with the regulator before your listing goes live.
Reaching JusticeNet
- How do I get in touch?
- info@justicenet.ca