Services in Ontario - Canada Pension Plan disability benefits (CPP)

During the COVID-19 situation, many community legal clinics are no longer meeting with people in person, but will provide services over the phone. Call ahead for more information.

Legal Aid Ontario funds community legal clinics across Ontario to give free legal services to people with low incomes. Lawyers, community legal workers, and law students can help people with some legal problems, like social assistance, housing, and workers’ rights.

To get help from a clinic:

• your legal issue must be one the clinic deals with
• you must live in the area the clinic serves
• you must have a low income

Most clinics also give brief advice or what’s called “summary advice”, without asking about your financial situation. If your local clinic can’t help you, they may be able to refer you to someone in your community who can.

Legal Aid Ontario funds ARCH to offer legal services to people with disabilities who have a low income. They will also give some advice to anyone with a disability who contacts them. ARCH’s work focuses on the areas of abuse, accessibility laws, attendant services, legal capacity, discrimination, education, and employment.

The Centre francophone de Toronto has a legal advice line funded by LAO for people living in the Greater Toronto Area including Toronto, Halton, Durham, Peel, and York. It gives legal information and advice in French over the telephone in the areas of:

• immigration law
• housing law
• income assistance
• employment law
• consumer rights
• human rights 

The advice line does not help with family law or criminal law matters.

The Ontario Legal Information Centre offers a free 30-minute meeting with a lawyer to anyone in Ontario by telephone or in person at their Ottawa office in any area of law in English or French. You may have to leave a message, and a lawyer will call you back.

JusticeNet helps people find a legal professional if their income is too high to get legal aid but too low to afford legal fees. If your net family income is less than $59,000, they refer you to an online directory of lawyers, paralegals, and mediators who provide help at reduced rates.  

JusticeNet is a non-profit organization. You must register and pay a $25 fee to use their website. They may return the fee if you don’t find a professional to work with.

The tribunal makes decisions on appeals about Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, and Old Age Security. The tribunal has a general division, which is the first level of appeal, and an appeal division, which is the second level of appeal. Their website has information about the appeal process and to get the forms you need to make an appeal.