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GAZETTE
JULY-AUGUST
1
President's Review
A strong speech by the President, Walter Beatty, to the
half-yearly meeting of the Society, focussed attention on
the weaknesses of the free civil legal aid scheme and was
widely reported in the newspapers.
He said, in part, that the Society has advocated a free
civil legal aid scheme for many years. It made
representations to the Department of Justice, which were
ignored, and a scheme which provides seven law centres
was introduced without reference to the Society. "We
welcome the introduction of a free legal aid scheme, but
sadly this welcome is on the basis of'any scheme is better
than no scheme at all'. We hope that what has been
introduced is merely an interim scheme, and, if it is
expanded to take into account the location and the
expertise of this profession as a whole, it can become a
good scheme, and I would urge that the Department of
Justice would broaden the scheme to do just that. There is
no objection to law centres in the big cities, but these
cannot serve rural Ireland. People will become suspicious
of it because in areas like Waterford, Sligo and Galway,
in matters of family law, travelling necessities will dictate
those involved in a broken marriage attending the same
centre. This is highly undesirable. Can you imagine the
same firm of solicitors acting for husband and wife in
dispute?
NO CHOICE
"In the booklet issued to the Oireachtas last
December, there is a most misleading heading 'Choice of
Lawyer'. There is no choice of lawyer. There is only
choice of a lawyer in a centre, and that means that in
Dublin somebody either has to move from Ballymun to
Tallaght — or maybe travel all the way to Galway. The
lawyers in the centre — and this is the only service that is
envisaged at this stage — will be paid civil servants, and,
if they are not very good, or if you had a row with them
previously, or if you are involved in a broken marriage
and do not believe that the one centre should act for your
husband as well as yourself, then you must go to another
centre.
"There is a means test, and most people will be
contributing towards the cost of the scheme. Therefore,
they should have the right to choose their own lawyer.
The dispensary system was abolished approximately ten
years ago, and since then there has been choice of doctor.
The same principle was applied recently in relation to
opthalmic services.
"Take Mayo, where there is no centre. It is a small
farmer agricultural county and the only appreciable
industrial towns are Ballina, Castlebar and Westport. The
nearest centres will be in Galway and Sligo. There will be
two lawyers in the centre in Sligo who will be dealing with
that county, County Donegal, County Monaghan,
County Cavan, County Leitrim, County Roscommon,
parts of Longford and Westmeath, and, most important
of all, with Co. Mayo.
TRAVEL PROBLEMS
"A Mayo person living in Belmullet, if they want to
avail of free civil legal aid at the centre in Sligo must
telephone to make an appointment, because otherwise the
two lawyers may be out at the many District Courts that
they will have the impossible task of trying to cover.
Then, unless they possess a car — unlikely if they are
looking for free civil legal aid — they must leave
Belmullet at 7 a.m., and probably arrive in Sligo between
noon and 1 p.m. They would then be faced with returning
from Sligo that evening to Ballina at approximately 8
p.m., and there would be no connection to their home in
Belmullet from Ballina at that hour. What about the
travelling cost? A ticket from Ballina to Galway, or
Ballina to Sligo, would cost approximately £4.50 and
£3.00 return respectively. If it is a family law case, the
aided person will have to travel probably at least on three
occasions to the centre, and the lawyers in the centre,
who are covering the District Courts, may on occasions
have to travel anything up to 120 miles at an average cost
of 25p per mile.
"In Mayo there are 19 towns in which the District
Court sits, and this means that in that county alone there
are 19 days out of every 20 working days in every month
in which the Distrcit Court is sitting. In addition, the
Circuit Court sits at Castlebar, Westport, Ballina and
Swinford during seven weeks of the year. Picture two
lawyers in Sligo, who will get the brunt of that county in
the first instance, trying to deal with 19 District Courts all
over the county in Mayo during 20 working days every
month, and also trying to deal with all the courts in Sligo,
Donegal and the other counties mentioned. It can only
create a cause of serious grievance in the mind of the
public, who eventually, unless there is a vast improvement
in the scheme, must turn its back on the centre system,
which means that we, as a profession, will once more be
asked to deal with this problem because it is there, and
because the Department's scheme has failed. It is
essential that the Department takes the necessary steps to
broaden this scheme so that people will not have to travel
long distances to a centre, and so that they will have a
real belief in the scheme, and it is essential that the
Department extends the scheme so that the profession, as
a whole, is involved, a system which has worked well in
other countries and is the only system which will work
well here.
ROLE OF THE BAR
"One last point is the position of the Bar in the scheme.
Some people may think that District Courts and Circuit
Courts can be dealt with by barristers being in
attandance. This is not an answer, because, apart from
the enormous expense involved, barristers cannot appear
in Court without being attended by a solicitor or by
someone from his office. A breach of this rule would be
considered a serious disciplinary matter by the Bar
Council.
INCREASE IN FEES
"Eight years ago a secretary's salary was
approximately £40.00 per week. It is now well over
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