Ontario judges order Ontario to raise legal aid rates in two cases. (Justice).

OTTAWA -- Judges in Brockville and Ottawa ordered Ontario Attorney General to pay attorneys fees higher than current legal aid rates because clients were unable to obtain layers willing to work at current legal aid rates. Defense lawyers are in a dispute with the government over the lee schedule which has not changed in 10 years and many are refusing legal aid clients.

In Brockville Justice Charles Sanderson ordered the province to to pay $125 per hour for a defense attorney but there is a cap on the total hours to be billed.

In Ottawa Superior Court Justice James Chadwick went beyond the Brockville order. The attorney will be paid $140 an hour (75% over the legal aid rate), with no cap on the hours he can work. Under current legal aid rates, he would be paid $79.14 an hour and his hours would be capped.

"It's disheartening to see the legal aid plan in such dishevel," Judge Chadwick said in his written ruling released yesterday. "When the plan was first established in 1967, it was recognized as one of the finest legal aid plans in the world. Many of the senior criminal lawyers supported and took cases under legal aid certificates.

"The poor were on the same level as the rich when it came to a legal defence. It's (now) obvious that only the younger lawyers are taking most of the legal aid certificates. These lawyers who accept certificates are doing so at a financial sacrifice."

In many parts of the province defence lawyers are holding total or partial moratoriums on accepting legal aid certificates.

Defence lawyers in the Ontario Association believe the Brockville and Ottawa rulings will set the standard for thousands of similar cases. Unless the Attorney General revises the rates, there could be thousands more court orders with judges setting the rates.