ARCH offers summary legal advice on transportation-related legal issues which includes municipal, provincial, and federally-regulated transportation. This includes city buses, accessible transportation, greyhound buses, trains, and airplanes.
If you were denied access to any of these types of transportation in Ontario due to your disability, or experienced discrimination because of your disability while using their service, ARCH can advise you of your rights.
Summary Legal Advice and Referral Service
ARCH provides a free and confidential legal information and summary advice service for people with disabilities across Ontario. Through our Summary Advice and Referral Service, ARCH Disability Law Centre can provide the following services:
- Free and confidential summary legal advice and legal information about supported decision-making, substitute decision-making, health care consent, and obtaining accounts from the Public Guardian and Trustee;
- Removing court appointed or statutory guardianship including the Public Guardian and Trustee;
- Revoking Powers of Attorney
How to Access our Summary Advice and Referral Service:
To begin our Intake process at ARCH, please complete the Intake Form (hyperlink here) here. Our Intake Coordinator will review your information and will be in touch with you to finalize our Intake process.
Another way to begin our Intake process is to contact our Intake Coordinator, who will ask you questions including your name, contact details, and household income.
The information requested helps us make sure there is no conflict of interest and that you qualify for our services. If your issue fits within the areas we help with, we will set up an appointment with a lawyer.
You can call ARCH to make an appointment at 416-482-8255 or toll-free at 1-866-482-2724 extension 0. You can also contact ARCH through our Teletypewriter service (TTY) at 416-482-1254 or toll-free at 1-866-482-2728.
To be eligible for this service, you need to meet these requirements:
- You must be the person with a disability whose rights are at issue.
- You must be a resident of Ontario.
Accommodation
Should you require any disability-related or other accommodations pursuant to the Human Rights Code, please inform us and we will explore the most appropriate accommodations that best meet your needs.
To access our Accessibility and Accommodation policies, go to: LINK
If you cannot contact us by telephone due to disability-related reasons, you can email us at intake@arch.clcj.ca.
If you reach out to us by email, please keep the following in mind:
- Transmissions do not create a solicitor-client relationship. Email transmissions sent to our intake address or to any staff at ARCH do not create a solicitor-client relationship. You will not become a client unless ARCH agrees to act for you and this is confirmed in a written agreement.
- Transmissions may not be confidential. ARCH cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the content of any email transmission facilitated by this website. If you wish to provide confidential information, please contact our Intake Coordinator or the appropriate lawyer by telephone.
Additional Legal Services/Representation Requests
If you need more legal help than what is offered through the Summary Advice and Referral service (SAR), the SAR lawyer will explain to you what legal services you may need (for example, representation at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario), and whether any of those services can be provided by ARCH. For legal services beyond the Summary Advice and Referral service, you will need to meet the following criteria:
1. You must be the person with a disability whose rights are at issue.
2. You must be a resident of Ontario.
- You must meet the financial eligibility criteria set by Legal Aid Ontario. We will check if you qualify before starting any work.
- Your case must fall within ARCH’s legal areas of practice and have legal merit (meaning it must be a case that has a chance of succeeding).
- For test case representation, your case must be systemic and meet test case eligibility criteria.
If you qualify financially, the SAR lawyer will explain ARCH’s process for deciding if we can take on your case. The lawyer may also ask for more information to understand things like: the strength of your case, whether we have the resources to help, if it’s a “test case” (which means it involves a new legal issue), and if the case could have a broader impact on the community.
If ARCH cannot represent you, we will try to offer legal advice, information, and/or refer you to other services that can help.
Financial Eligibility
ARCH is funded by Legal Aid Ontario, and must provide services to individuals that meet Legal Aid Ontario’s financial eligibility test. The financial eligibility test is one of the factors that will determine whether ARCH can provide legal representation. The test includes the individual’s family unit; the family unit’s gross income; and the family unit’s liquid assets.
Income
| Family unit size for entity services | Gross annual income |
| 1 | $22,720 |
| 2 | $32,131 |
| 3 | $39,352 |
| 4 | $45,440 |
| 5 or more | $50,803 |
Assets
| Family unit size for entity services | Liquid asset value limit for entity services |
| Individual | $8,933 |
| Family unit of 2 or more | $11,910 |
Excerpt from Legal Aid Ontario Policy: Financial eligibility testing for entity services provided by community legal clinics and student legal services organization, published October 2021.
For more information about the financial eligibility test, please go to: https://www.legalaid.on.ca/more/corporate/about-lao-landing-page/legal-aid-ontarios-financial-eligibility-guidelines/
Please note that the Summary Advice and Referral services are provided regardless of financial eligibility requirements.
Select Resources on transportation
Public Legal Education Materials
ARCH created a series of 4 videos to provide useful tips for persons registering or re-registering for TTC Wheel-Trans services. https://stage.archdisabilitylaw.ca/rights-education-materials-for-transportation/
Advocacy modules
Workshops and Webinars
ARCH lawyer, guest speaker on CNIB Podcast on Transportation https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/arch-lawyer-guest-speaker-on-cnib-podcast-on-transportation/
Submissions
Papers
Blog
More Information and Community Resources