Justice committee  Thank you very much for the invitation. I accepted your invitation as president of the Association des juristes d'expression française de la Nouvelle-Écosse. We are very honoured to be testifying before you. I have been practising law for 25 years, and I accept legal aid certi

Justice committee  The maximum hours they provide for is normally 20 hours per file. This was a complex file, so I requested some additional funds. They allotted 15 extra hours, but at the end of the day I requested more funds and they refused. I kept track of my time to see how much time I would s

Justice committee  I believe the issue is mostly the question of money because of the rates they pay, which are between $65 and $80 per hour. So most bilingual lawyers—

Justice committee  No, between $65 and $80.

Justice committee  The lawyers I have spoken to over the years have given that as one of the reasons they don't take many cases. In my case, it's a bit different because I live an hour and three-quarters or two hours from the courthouse. I take legal aid certificates to pay for some of the expenses

Justice committee  It was at $70, and I believe they raised it three or four years ago, which is the maximum.

Justice committee  Not that I'm aware of.

Justice committee  You know, a former lawyer and now retired judge told me something 25 years ago, back when I was beginning my practice. He was anglophone and would come to my small town once a month. He admitted to me that, in many cases, his clients ended up pleading guilty to crimes because it

Justice committee  It's even worse than that. In Halifax and other places, people have gone to court and requested a trial in French only to be told by the clerk that there was no francophone judge, which was completely untrue. The clerks might not have known that there were francophone judges. Tha

Justice committee  I've always thought that if there were designated jobs that were posted, whether for government or federal appointees, then they would have to find bilingual candidates. Until that's done and there is an active offer of service, and until.... I'm glad that the question of fundin