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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)
170