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Legal Aid in Canada
Legal aid is one of the pillars supporting the Canadian justice system. ... By allowing these clients access to legal aid, the integrity of the Canadian legal system is also maintained. Canada’s legal system, with the feature of legal aid, will continue to be looked upon as one of the world’s best systems of law and justice. Overall, legal aid is an essential part of the Canadian justice system that must be maintained and properly funded to ensure Canadian citizen’s rights are upheld.
The central purpose behind the establishment of the Canadian legal aid system was to give underprivileged and poverty-ridden people, who had been charged with a crime, a fair chance to prove themselves to be not guilty in a court of law. Before the legal aid system was established in 1967, when the Legal Aid Act was passed, people who did not have the funds to obtain a lawyer were forced to defend themselves. ... Legal is made available to these people not only when there is a criminal act involved but rather when they are having problems that are common to humanity. ... Legal assistance is essential for defending the rights given to all Canadians. Low-income people rarely have the luxury of occasional or discrete encounters with the legal system because most of the legal problems they face are problems of everyday life. ... Unlike middle or upper-class people, persons with low-incomes are subject to complex laws and obscure legal regulations when they seek the means to survive such as welfare. ... This Act will often use language and sophisticated legal concepts that any person may find impossible to understand. ... Low-income people often lack the resources and skills that are necessary to investigate and follow up on legal entitlements and protections. There are specific areas of law which apply to only low-income people and many times these people have special legal needs that flow from the circumstances of a persons poverty. It is important to remember that about 65 per cent of all legal problems reported involved basic necessities. ... Legal aid is a fundamental feature of our justice system and our democracy. ... The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms also recognizes the need for legal aid.
Approximate Word count = 1820
Approximate Pages = 7.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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