What is the profession of PARALEGAL in Ontario, Canada?

Welcome to the new site of Hao Legal Services

Hi there, appreciate for your time to visit the new site of Hao Legal Service. My name is Han Hao and I am a paralegal who provides legal service in Ontario, Canada. Throughout the training and real-life practice, I realized that the whole community is still NOT aware of the existence of the paralegal as a profession, needlessly speaking to reach out to paralegals for legal advice.

Therefore,

The purpose of the site is not merely to present myself and my service as one of the cliché sites which traffics nears zero, but to create an informative source and open platform for people to get to know that certain legal issues can be settled through another channel - paralegal.

Ontario Paralegal vs Paralegals in other Canadian provinces

Just in case you have watched the American legal drama, "Suites", you would love the vibe of being a legal professional (however, it's totally different from the real-life legal world), and their characters would tell you something about the difference between a paralegal and a lawyer.

If you have not watched the show, that's fine as well. Let's get into the points.

Lawyer and paralegals in Ontario are regulated by the Law Society of Ontario (LSO). By visiting LSO website, you can find the status (on-going or suspended etc) of a lawyer or a paralegal by inserting their name or license number.

After the professional training, lawyer would receive the degree of JD and a paralegal would receive a certificate from an accredited teaching institution. In other provinces of Canada, a paralegal normally preform legal administrative work within a law firm; therefore, paralegals of other Canadian provinces would mostly work as employees. However, since paralegals in Ontario are granted with the right to provide legal services for the clients from the beginning to the end at controlled situations (service scope to be explained below), many paralegals operate their legal services firm in the same manner as a law firm.

What can a paralegal do in Ontario?

Since paralegal is brand new profession (less than 10 years), many people in Ontario are now aware of what and how a paralegal can provide legal services. But actually, paralegal's scopes cover a great deal of different aspects of the society. Here is a brief list of commonly sought legal service areas:

• Small claims court: if you are suing or being sued for the monetary value under 35000, you can look for the legal service from a paralegal;

• Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB): A paralegal can help you to go through the dispute between a landlord and a tenant;

• Traffic ticket (POA): to fight a traffic ticket? A paralegal can provide help;

• Employment law and human rights;

• so many other tribunals where paralegals are allowed to represent the clients.

I am still in process of the exploring more areas to provide cost-effective service for the society and the clients. Keep in tune, I will update new areas of services in details in the future posts.