Following a one-year pilot, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has decided to make its legal aid program a permanent feature.
The OSC says it is continuing its litigation assistance program, which provides legal assistance to respondents facing enforcement proceedings that don’t have their own lawyers and are faced with representing themselves before the commission.
Under the program, volunteer counsel provide legal services to self-represented respondents to assist with various stages of an enforcement proceeding, including: pre-hearing conferences; settlement conferences and/or settlement hearings; sanctions and costs hearings; and, on an exceptional basis, motions.
Any unrepresented respondents will be eligible to receive assistance under the program. The volunteer counsel are private practitioners who are independent of the commission.
The commission began a pilot program to explore the idea of providing legal assistance to unrepresented respondents in October 2011, and has now decided to formalize it.