Downtown Legal Services

About

Downtown Legal Services is both a community legal clinic and a clinical education program, operated by the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.

Story

Downtown Legal Services is the Faculty of Law’s award-winning public interest clinic for low income clients. Working under the close supervision of expert staff lawyers, our law students provide free legal assistance with criminal, family, human rights, refugee and immigration and housing law issues. We also assist University of Toronto students with academic offences and appeals.

Products

Our Services

We provide legal advice and representation for clients who qualify for our services. Depending on the case, our services may include advice about the law and your options, negotiating settlements, filing claims or defences, or representing you at a trial or hearing.

The following are the types of cases we handle:

CRIMINAL LAW
Cases we handle: most summary conviction offences, including theft, fraud, assault, domestic assault, causing disturbance, uttering threats, failure to comply/appear, and drug offences.

Cases we do not handle: indictable offences, provincial offences, private complaints, peace bond applications, driving offences (including impaired driving), weapons charges involving guns, and appeals of cases where we did not handle the trial.

FAMILY LAW
Cases we handle: child custody, access and support, spousal support, and restraining orders. Cases must not have been filed or must be filed at the Family Court at 47 Sheppard Avenue East.

Cases we do not handle: cases that have already been filed courts other than 47 Sheppard Avenue East, divorce cases, division of property and child protection (Children’s Aid matters).

REFUGEE LAW
Cases we handle: refugee claims, judicial review applications, requests to defer removal/stay motions, humanitarian and compassionate applications, and pre-removal risk assessments.

Cases we do not handle: family class sponsorship applications, permanent resident applications, filling out other applications, visa extensions, extradition, security certificates, and detention reviews.

TENANT HOUSING LAW
Cases we handle: tenant disputes with their landlords, including evictions, repair applications, rent deposits, breaches of quiet enjoyment and illegal lock-outs. We take cases to the Landlord and Tenant Board and to the Small Claims Court, including for enforcement of damages awards obtained by tenants but unpaid by landlords.

We do not assist landlords, or tenants in disputes with co-tenants or subtenants. We also do not handle issues relating to rent-geared-to-income (RGI) subsidies.

UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS
Cases we handle: cases for levy-paying students at the University of Toronto (all three campuses) that involve academic offences and appeals beyond the instructor and department chair level, and Student Code of Conduct offences.

Cases we do not handle: cases for students at other universities, or appeals or petitions at the level of the instructor or departmental chair.

Please note that if you wish to become a client of the clinic, you must call first to make an appointment. Click Contact Us to find out how to do this.

PLAIN LANGUAGE WORKSHOPS
We provide plain language workshops on legal topics for both community agency staff and their clientele. These workshops can be geared to your particular audience, and can be provided on-site at a community agency or other locations. Examples include workshops on tenants’ rights, police powers, and child support and custody. We are also prepared to develop new and customizezed workshops for you as well. To request a workshop or learn more, e-mail us at [email protected].