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Free Legal Advice Centres
Address made to Society of Young Solicitors Seminar in
Galway on Saturday, 25th March 1972, by John
Glackin, Chairman, F.L.A.C.
F.L.A.C. was started in April 1969 by a group of law
students. It opened with one centre in Mountjoy Square
and other centres were later added. In the past year,
three new centres were opened in Rialto, Ballymun and
the Dun Laoire area. Each centre is staffed by a group
of law students who attend each week on the night the
centre is open. There is a panel of solicitors for each
centre and a solicitor attends the centre each week. The
panels are operated on a rota basis so that a solicitor
may be called on anything from once in six weeks to
once in twelve weeks. The solicitor deals with any prob-
lems that are posed by visitors to the centre and which
the student interviewer cannot answer himself. Some
problems presented require further legal action possibly
a court case and in such instances, the solicitor has the
case referred back to his office. At the end of July 1971
the total number of cases dealt with by F.L.A.C. was
1,054—at the end of February 1972 the total number of
cases was approximately 1,800. These figures speak for
themselves. F.L.A.C. has established itself as an impor-
tant social service in which the solicitors play a funda-
mental and very essential role. However, more solicitors
are now required for the centres in Ballymun and Dun
Laoire and volunteers may give their names to me.
There are similar centres in operation in Cork and
Galway, staffed by law students from UCC and UCG
respectively. But there are many other provincial areas
where the need exists for a similar service. Obviously
there will not be students to do the interviewing but
it should be possible for solicitors in provincial towns to
provide a free legal advice service for those who would
not or could not go to a solicitor's office for financial
reasons. This could be organised by the local Bar Asso-
ciations in conjunction with existing social and com-
munity service councils.
The third matter I want to deal with is related to dis-
cussion on solicitors' fees and possible future control by
non-lawyers. If fees are further controlled and limited
solicitors will be less able to deal with charitable cases
and the question of a comprehensive legal aid scheme
will become more immediate as its necessity becomes
greater. We should therefore now begin to examine
optional systems of legal aid and advice which could be
introduced here and the way to start is by looking at
systems in other countries.
The English Legal Aid Scheme
The English Legal Aid Scheme in criminal cases is
basically the same as ours, due of course to the fact that
our Act of 1962 was a copy of earlier English legislation.
But English legislation governing criminal legal aid was
revised in 1967 after the report of the Widgery Com-
mittee in 1966.
The main differences now between the English and
Irish system, apart from the difference in the amount
of monev allocated for legal aid, are :
(a) In England, lawvers are paid fees that are broadly
based on the work done in each individual case—a
narrative bill is prepared showing the work done and
the disbursements and this is scrutinised by the Area
Committee of the Legal Aid system or by the Clerk of
the Court.
(b) In England, a person getting legal aid may have
to make a contribution towards the costs—this depends
on his income after allowing for various deductions in
respect of dependants, etc.
(c) In England, the principle is that the court should
positively see that Legal Aid is preferred where it may
be needed—in Ireland, the Court has no such duty
although some Judges do inform defendants of their
right to apply for Legal aid.
Criteria of the Widgery Committee
The Widgery Committee set out the criteria other
than financial to assess whether a person should be
granted legl aid. These are:
(i) If charge is a grave one in the sense that accused
is in real practical jeopardy of losing his liberty or live-
lihood or suffering serious damage to his reputation.
(ii) If the charge raises a substantial question of law.
(iii) If the accused is unable to follow the proceedings
and state his own case either because of his inadequate
knowledge of English or because of mental illness or
other mental or physical disability.
(iv) If the nature of the defence involves tracing and
interviewing of witnesses or expert cross-examination of
a prosecution witness.
Even with these improvements on the old system, the
English legal profession are not satisfied that the system
is working correctly, particularly in the Magistrates'
Courts where in 1969 only 3.5 per cent of defendants
were granted legal aid. Late last year a Justice report,
"The Unrepresented Defendant in Magistrates' Courts",
suggested that a different system of legal aid might be
more efficient in giving representation in those
Courts. The report suggested a "Duty Solicitor"
scheme where there are solicitors attached to the courts
who will represent defendants who cannot afford legal
representation otherwise—these "Duty Solicitors" would
be paid out of public money.
At least two local law societies in England are acti-
vely considering the "Duty Solicitor" scheme and will
probably implement it for a month's experimental
period.
CivH Legal Aid
Civil Legal Aid—there is no statutory system in
Ireland but in England there is a fairly elaborate
scheme of Legal Aid and Advice.
(a) Legal Advice Scheme—any person with income of
less than £9.50 per week after allowing deductions for
dependants, can obtain for 12£p up to
hours of
advice from a participating solicitor on any legal prob-
lem. The solicitor can then claim £2 per \ hour of
advice, up to a maximum of
hours, which is paid
out of the Supplementary Benefits Fund of the Depart-
ment of Social Security. This scheme is administered
by the Law Society.
(b) Legal Aid Scheme—a person of limited means may
have his lawyer's fees either paid in full or in part for
bringing or defending almost any type of civil claim,
but in practice about 85 per cent of legally-aided cases
are for divorce or other matrimonial matters.
Again there is dissatisfaction in England with this
system for varied reasons.
(i) The gap between legal advice and legal aid in a
court case is too wide and is not plugged, e.g. there is
no aid for non-litigious negotiations or for social welfare
tribunal work.
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