Delivery of certificate of lien to sheriff
18. (1) Where a person who owns or has any interest in any land in Ontario has agreed to contribute towards the cost of legal aid given to the person as set out in his or her certificate, the area director who issued the certificate may deliver or transmit a certificate of lien in duplicate in the form prescribed by the regulations to the sheriff for the area in which the land mentioned therein is situate and, if the area director does so, he or she shall also deliver or transmit a copy thereof to the Director. Endorsement and entry in index book (2) Upon receipt of a certificate of lien under subsection (1), the sheriff shall, without fee, endorse thereon the day of the year, the month, the hour and the minute of its receipt and shall enter in an alphabetically-arranged index book kept for the purpose the name of the contributor shown on the certificate. Lien on land, registry system (3) As soon as the endorsement and entry have been made under subsection (2) and the land mentioned in the certificate is in the registry system, the Law Society on behalf of the Fund has a lien against the contributor’s land mentioned in the certificate for an amount equal to the amount that he or she agreed to contribute towards the cost of the legal aid as shown in the certificate, to the extent that such amount remains unpaid from time to time. Delivery of copy to land registrar (4) As soon as the endorsement and entry have been made under subsection (2) and the land mentioned in the certificate is in the land titles system, the sheriff shall deliver or transmit to the proper land registrar a copy of the certificate, and the land registrar, upon receipt of the copy of the certificate, shall, without fee, endorse thereon the day of the year, the month, the hour and the minute of its receipt and shall enter in an alphabetically-arranged index book kept for the purpose the name of the contributor shown on the certificate. Lien on land, land titles system (5) As soon as the endorsement and entry have been made under subsection (4), the Law Society on behalf of the Fund has a lien against the contributor’s land mentioned in the certificate for an amount equal to the amount that the contributor agreed to contribute towards the cost of the legal aid given to him or her as shown in the certificate, to the extent that such amount remains unpaid from time to time. Execution certificates (6) Where a certificate respecting execution against land is required from a sheriff or land registrar, the sheriff shall, without additional fee, include in the execution certificate a statement as to whether there is a name shown in the index book mentioned in subsection (2) or (4), as the case may be, that is the same as the name shown on the certificate. Discharge of lien (7) As soon as a contributor has discharged his or her obligation to contribute towards the cost of the legal aid given to him or her, the lien mentioned in this section is discharged, and the Director shall deliver or transmit a certificate of discharge in duplicate in the form prescribed by the regulations to the sheriff to whom the certificate of lien was delivered or transmitted. Duty of sheriff (8) Upon receipt of a certificate of discharge, the sheriff shall attach the certificate of discharge to the proper certificate of lien and strike the name of the contributor from the index book kept pursuant to subsection (2). Duty of land registrar (9) Where the land mentioned in a certificate of discharge is under the land titles system, the sheriff, upon receipt of a certificate of discharge, shall deliver or transmit to the proper land registrar a copy of the certificate of discharge and, upon receipt of the copy of the certificate of discharge, the land registrar shall attach the copy of the certificate of discharge to the proper certificate of lien and strike the name of the contributor from the index book kept pursuant to subsection (4). R.S.O. 1990, c. L.9, s. 18.