New Steps to Justice Website Gives Step-by-Step Legal Information

This guest post is one in a series providing practical, easy to understand legal information from CLEO (Community Legal Information Ontario / Éducation juridique communautaire Ontario).

Having problems with your landlord? Worried that you are being treated unfairly at work? Getting separated or divorced? These are some of the issues that people in Ontario face every day.

Recent studies have shown that almost 50 percent of Canadians over the age of 18 will experience at least one civil or family law problem in a three year period that they consider serious. And public awareness of the law is very low – many don’t understand that certain problems have a legal component, but view them as simply bad luck or bureaucratic problems.

But now Ontarians can go to Steps to Justice – a new website that empowers people to understand and take action to deal with their legal problems. Steps to Justice provides practical and reliable information on everyday problems that people face, in family, housing, employment, social assistance, consumer, criminal, and human rights law.

Steps to Justice is designed to:

Equip you to work through your legal problems following simple, easy-to-understand steps

Provide practical tools such as checklists, fillable forms and self-help guides

Give referral information for legal and social services across Ontario

Connect you by live chat and email-based support for answers to additional questions

It also has a glossary of legal terms to help you understand the content.

Led by Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO), Steps to Justice brings together key justice sector players from government ministries, courts, tribunals, community legal clinics, legal aid, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. These partners are working together to add key content and monitor and update the website.

Do you have a legal question? Visit Steps to Justice today.

About CLEO

CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario/ Éducation juridique communautaire Ontario) is a non-profit organization that provides accurate and easy-to-understand information and education about the law for people in Ontario, particularly those who have low incomes or other disadvantages. CLEO is funded by Legal Aid Ontario, the Department of Justice Canada, and the Law Foundation of Ontario.

Additional Resources at Toronto Public Library

Basic legal materials are available at many Toronto Public Library branches. Specialized Law sections are located at the Toronto Reference Library and the North York Central Library.

Selected titles:

The annotated Ontario Landlord and Tenant Act

Residential tenancies in Ontario, 3rd ed.

What tenants need to know about the law

The worker’s status: employee or independent contractor

The written contract of employment

What you should know about family law in Ontario

Surviving your divorce: a guide to Canadian family law, 6th ed.