Alberta government offers to extend legal aid funding after lawyers threaten to stop taking cases

The Alberta government has reversed course in its funding and governance negotiations with Legal Aid Alberta, offering to extend their original agreement, after the organization said it would stop taking new cases next week unless the province came up with a more palatable deal than its latest proposal.LAA, a non-profit that represented 33,500 vulnerable residents last year, including children, people experiencing family violence and troubled teens and adults, operated under a governance agreement with the province and the Law Society of Alberta. The most recent deal expired June 30, after the province on June 27 proposed new terms that the LAA said would undermine its independence and put its financial future at risk.The organization said in a Tuesday letter that it could not accept Alberta’s proposed terms and on July 9 would stop issuing certificates, which are documents authorizing legal aid staff members or roster lawyers to act on a client’s behalf, unless the dispute was resolved.