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GAZETTE
DECEMBER 1991
Need for Comprehensive Scheme of
Civil Legal Aid
Report of Law Society Committee on Civil Legal Aid
The current scheme of Civil Legal Aid falls very short of what is
needed according to the report of the Law Society Committee on
Civil Legal Aid. The Committee was appointed by the Council of
the Society to examine the existing scheme of legal aid and tomake
recommendations as to how the scheme might be improved. The
Committee says that the provision of a comprehensive legal aid
scheme is an indispensable feature of amodern democratic society
which has proper regard for equal opportunity and the importance
of access to justice.
Shortcomings
The Committee's report identifies a
number of shortcomings in the
current scheme. The existing
scheme of civil legal aid was
established in 1980 on foot of a
report by the Pringle Committee.
However, the scheme introduced
by the Government fell far short of
the comprehensive scheme recom-
mended by that Committee. For
example, a range of proceedings are
excluded from the scope of the
scheme including defamation,
disputes concerning rights and
interests over land, civil bills for
sums below £150, arbitration under
the Landlord and Tenant Acts and
conveyancing matters. The scheme
does not cover class actions or test
cases. The scheme applies only to
proceedings before a court;
proceedings before tribunals
including inquests and arbitrations
are excluded from the scheme.
Another serious limitation is that
the scheme provides its services
solely through lawyers employed
directly by the Legal Aid Board in
centres run by the Board through-
out the country. Lawyers in private
practice are excluded. The Pringle
Committee had recommended that
legal aid and advice should be
provided both by lawyers in private
practice and lawyers in community
legal advice centres.
At present, there are only twelve
legal advice centres in the country
and there are wide areas of the
country which do not have the
services of a centre. As a conse-
quence, the catchment areas of
many of the centres are very large,
in many cases covering more than
one county. The existing centres
are inundated with work and quite
unable to cope with the current
level of demand. Persons seeking
legal aid often have to travel
substantial distances to obtain a
service. There are long waiting
periods for people seeking advice.
Recommendations for a
comprehensive scheme of
civil legal aid and advice
The Committee's report makes a
number of recommendations:
1. The scheme of civil legal aid and
advice, suitably improved,
should be put on a statutory
basis without delay. The Legal
Aid board should be established
in law and given statutory
powers and responsibilities. It
should be independent in the
exercise of its functions. The
Board should have an adequate
budget sufficient to enable it to
discharge its functions effect-
ively including research and
dissemination of information
about legal rights. The necessary
legislation should be introduced
without further delay.
2. The number of legal aid centres
should be increased. There
should be at least one centre in
every principal county town in
the country. The number of
centres in Dublin and other
larger cities needs to be
increased.
3. While the network of law
centres around the country
needs to be extended, clearly it
woúld not be economic to
establish a centre in every town
or village. Therefore, the Law
Society believes there is a role
for the private practitioner in the
scheme to cover areas where it
would not be practicable to have
a full-time law centre.
4. A second reason for involving
private practitioners in the
scheme would be to enable the
Legal Aid Board to deal ade-
quately with
conflict
cases in the
family law area. At present,
when marital difficulties arise
between spouses and the
parties are eligible for legal aid,
only one of the spouses can be
represented by the local legal aid
centre. This means that if the
other spouse also requires legal
services, he has to obtain a
service from another centre. The
result is that at least one of the
solicitors has to travel a long
distance to take instructions and
to represent his client in court.
This is an uneconomic way of
providing the service.
5. Private practitioners should also
be involved in the scheme to deal
w i t h adjournments and to
provide replacements for Legal
Aid Board solicitors who are
absent.
6. The scope of the scheme should
be extended to cover re-
presentation of persons before
tribunals, in particular, the
Employment Appeal Tribunal.
7. The present criteria for eligibility
for legal aid gives rise to con-
fusion and requires clarification.
All medical card holders should
be entitled to obtain services
under the scheme and the Legal
Aid Board should be given a
residual discretion in relation to
borderline cases.
(Cont'd on page 423)
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