The Gazette 1981

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1981

advise in the presence of a local person, who is anxious to develop interviewing skills. The service has a single-tier structure with no demarcation between the lawyers, locals and clients. In an effort to further its aims to educate the public, the Centre will run a further course on 2 0 varied legal topics in the near future, dealing with such elementary matters as how to respond if a summons is served on you. It clearly prevents hardship and legal turmoil if every citizen is au-fait with these requirements — a good argument for the extension of the Law Centres' work to include legal education. A Political Solution? In the end, like most issues, access to the law comes down to politics. For example, if groups such as the Divorce Action Group, which, as we have seen, arose from a meeting of the Management Committee in the Coolock Community Law Centre, started springing up left, right and centre, the Government might find itself forced into taking action on certain issues which have been either overlooked or simply ignored for years. Examples that occur are single parents and illegitimacy, itinerants and juvenile delinquents (so-called), all of whom enjoy a less than privileged status in our society. Furthermore, there is a deep-rooted tradition in Ireland whereby local T . D .s exercise a near-monopoly on advice- giving and problem-solving through the vehicle of their clinics — an area of concern which a Community Law Centre might infringe upon. Here we are talking about Medical Cards, housing allocation and welfare benefits generally. Indeed, T . D .s often like to credit themselves with gaining a benefit for a constituent which, if properly received, is something to which he or she is entitled as of right. Toe-stepping in this sensitive area will be resented

by any average politician. To avoid this conflict many useful reforms could still be put through to make legal procedures more simple and comprehensible. In England, since 1973, the option of arbitration instead of a Court case has existed for small claims; in Poland, there are "Social Conciliatory Committees," in Sweden, a Public Complaints Board has been set up, along with a simplified procedure in the regular courts; while, in Germany, there is a 'Public Legal Consultation and Mediation Agency' which has operated successfully for over fifty years in Hamburg and other major centres. To date, the only offering in this country's jurisdiction is the Courts Act, 1980, Suffice it to say that there has been severe criticism of some sections of this Act which provides for custody actions to be tried in the District Court. The problem of access to the law is primarily a matter for the legal profession. Like the medical profession, which lobbied for the Choice of Doctors Scheme, the onus must rest on the law-merchants who, after all, in terms of prestige and public image, stand to gain substantially from increased access to the law by the citizenry.• FOOTNOTES 1. Wexler: Practising Law for Poor People," (1970) Yale Law Journal. 2. "Legal Problems and the Citizen" (1973) Abel-Smith, Zander and Brooke. 3. Quoted in "Unequal Justice" (1976), J.S. Auerbach. 4. The Pringle Report, page 100. (This article first appeared in The Cork Review, June 1981 and is reprinted here with kind permission of the publishers).

"Just because it's in his own hand, Mrs Figmarsh, doesn't automatically

make it a legal will."

(Reprinted with kind permission from Punch. 22 April. 1981)

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