Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney General. Legal Services Branch

Identity area

Type of entity

Lower-level Ontario government office (type C)

Authorized form of name

Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney General. Legal Services Branch

Parallel form(s) of name

    Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

    • Legal Services Branch

    Other form(s) of name

    • Ontario. Common Legal Services

    • Ontario. Seconded Legal Services Branch

    • Ontario. Business Advisory Branch

    Identifiers for corporate bodies

    Description area

    Dates of existence

    1973-2003

    History

    The Legal Services Branch was established in 1973 as the Common Legal Services Division of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. This Division was administered by an Assistant Deputy Attorney General from 1973 until 1979. The Division was also given responsibility over the Official Guardian's Branch and the Public Trustee's Branch in 1975, both of which were previously attached to the Crown Law Office.

    In 1979, Common Legal Services lost its divisional status and was placed as a separate branch, along with the Official Guardian's Branch and the Public Trustee's Branch, within the Civil Law Division. With this change, administration of Common Legal Services was taken over by a director, reporting to the Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Civil Law Division. The name remained Common Legal Services until 1984, when it was changed to the Legal Services Branch. Since then, the name of the branch has changed twice: in 1992 it was changed to the Seconded Legal Services Branch, and then in 1995, it was renamed the Business Advisory Branch. In 1997, the Civil Law Division was abolished and the functions and responsibilities of the Business Advisory Branch were transferred to the Public Law and Policy Division.

    By 2000, Seconded Legal Services had been re-created as a branch within a newly formed Legal Services Division.

    Places

    Legal status

    Functions, occupations and activities

    The Legal Services Branch provided lawyers and coordinated general legal advice to the ministries and certain agencies, boards and commissions of the Ontario Government. The head of the Branch also functioned as the Chief Inquiry Officer under the Expropriations Act by appointing and providing liaison with provincial inquiry officers who hear public concerns on specific expropriation cases.

    Address

    Internal structures/genealogy

    General context

    Relationships area

    Related entity

    Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney General (1972-)

    Identifier of related entity

    AA72

    Category of relationship

    hierarchical

    Type of relationship

    Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney General controls Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney General. Legal Services Branch

    Dates of relationship

    1973-2003

    Description of relationship

    Access points area

    Subject access points

    Place access points

    Epithet

    Control area

    Authority record identifier

    CA215

    Institution identifier

    Rules and/or conventions used

    RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

    Status

    Approved

    Level of detail

    Dates of creation, revision and deletion

    2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

    Language(s)

      Script(s)

        Sources

        Annual Reports of the Ministry of the Attorney General, 1974-1992

        KWIC Indexes, 1977-1997

        Ontario Government Telephone Directories, 1973-2003

        Info-Go website

        Ministry of the Attorney General Internet site

        Maintenance notes

        Agency not found in Canadiana Name Authorities, 1996-12-24

        Archivist(s):
        R. Anger; Clarkson