Managing for results

The Legal Services Society (LSS or the society) initiated the tariff review in January 2004 in response to growing concerns about the steady decline in the number of lawyers accepting legal aid cases, and the lack of new lawyers entering the legal aid system. There has been no comprehensive review of the tariff system since the Task Force on Public Legal Services issued its report (the Hughes Report) in 1984. With a new service delivery model in place following the budget reductions and restructuring of 2002, and Legal Aid Ontario's tariff review as a precedent, the LSS board directed that staff form a Tariff Review Working Group (the working group) to evaluate the tariffs and recommend necessary changes to ensure that the tariff system meets the needs of low-income people in British Columbia.