Legal Advice

Mediators cannot provide legal advice. Even if your mediator is also a trained lawyer, they cannot offer advice while they are acting as your mediator.

A mediator will strongly encourage each party to seek legal advice about any mediation report prepared.

Seeking the advice of a lawyer can provide you with information about your legal rights and obligations and lawyers can review mediation reports before they are made into orders or other binding documents such as separation agreements.

In court mediation, if parties do not have their own retained counsel, they may inquire with Legal Aid’s Duty Counsel program to determine if they qualify to obtain free summary legal advice prior to having their mediation report made into a court order.

In off-site mediation, if the parties want the report to be re-drafted into a contractually binding agreement, it is suggested that a lawyer is obtained to help with this process.

In some instances, you may be able to have a lawyer provided to you via the Ontario Legal Aid Plan. To find out if you qualify, visit their website at www.legalaid.on.ca or call 1-800-668-8258 toll-free to get legal aid help in over 200 languages.

If you would like help to find a lawyer, you may find assistance using the Law Society Referral Service. They can be reached by calling 1-800-268-8326 or visiting their website at www.lsuc.on.ca.

You can also find a listing of all the local legal clinics in the areas we serve in our MIP community resource listings.