The Paralegal Society of Ontario is a not-for-profit organization whose revenues are generated through fees for membership dues and donations from sponsors.  These revenues are used to support the PSO’s activities as an advocate for the Paralegal profession, subsidize conferences and education programs and develop and maintain the PSO’s website.   The members of the Board of Directors, along with other members of the PSO, volunteer their time to manage the operations of the PSO. 

New members are required to submit an application to become enrolled in the PSO, and upon approval of their application by the Membership Committee, the appropriate membership dues must be paid before the applicant will be recognized as a member in good standing.

Individual Membership is defined by three categories and the annual dues are applied on a calendar basis.  In accordance with the By-laws of the PSO, the following criteria apply to each class of individual membership. 

Voting Member
Any person who holds a P1 license in good standing as issued by the Law Society of Upper Canada or who was a voting member of the Paralegal Society of Ontario as of May 1, 2008 may be entitled to an Individual Voting Membership.

Associate Member
Any person who
a) is not a P1 licensee or does not otherwise qualify for an individual voting membership; or
b) does not qualify for a student membership,
may be entitled to an Individual Associate Membership. 

Student Member
Any person who is registered as a student at a course of paralegal studies accredited by the Law Society of Upper Canada may be entitled to a Student Membership.
Student Members may not use references to the Society in promotional materials, brochures, advertisements, business cards and letterhead without written permission of the Society.

All Members
As part of the application process and in order to maintain membership in good standing each member must agree to abide by the Code of Ethics of the Corporation, submit their application in the proper form and provide any requested supporting documentation, and pay the appropriate membership dues. 

Membership Dues

Dues must be paid in full before user access to the website will be activated.    This includes:
    - access to the ‘Members Only’ materials published on the website
    - access to the 'Members Only' discussion forum 
    - the posting of the member’s information in the PSO's ‘Find a Paralegal’ directory

Please refer to the separate articles published under the FEES menu for details of the current membership dues applicable for each membership category.

Membership Dues in Arrears - Additional Fees: 
In accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the Paralegal Society of Ontario, the following fees may be applied when membership dues are outstanding:
NSF Fees
$ 25.00 NSF Fee -  for each payment not honoured by the member’s bank or credit card company.
Lapse of Membership Dues
$ 75.00 Administration Fee - for each membership that has lapsed for more than 120 days.