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GAZETTE
JULY
Legal Aid and the Community Centres
Lecture delivered by David Ellis, Solicitor, Community Law Officer, Coolock
Law Centre, to the FLAC Seminar in the Mansion House on 28th May, 1977,
on "Access to Justice and Law Centres in Ireland".
All the available information is that the Pringle
Committee considering Civil Legal Aid will report
shortly—but what effect this Report will have and when
such a scheme will be introduced, no one knows. At the
Fine Gael Ard Fheis, the former Minister, Mr. Patrick
Cooney, in the context of Civil Legal Aid, was already
speaking of "financial and administrative restraints" on
such a scheme. Whether this is the beginning of yet a
further delay on the introduction of a comprehensive Legal
Aid Scheme, only time will tell but I think we must be
prepared for a long battle even after the Pringle Report is
published. (In the light of the admission of the Airey case
by the European Commission of Civil Rights in
Strasbourg, the report will doubtless be published soon).
Unfortunately the delay has already meant a certain
clamping down of debate. We must ensure that the flame
of debate concerning Legal Aid and Law Centres does
not abate—"for we know not neither the day nor the
hour" when Mr. Justice Pringle will arrive—nor if the
Minister for Justice will let him in, when he does in fact
arrive.
While Civil Legal Aid would be a step forward, it will
not fundamentally alter the existing lack of access to
justice in this country. The number of solicitors offices
which will effectively implement a scheme of Legal Aid
will be few and far between. This is because basically such
offices are geared to profit-making business, and Civil
Legal Aid will not entice them away substantially from
such areas. The people who will continue to have die real
access to justice in this country, will be those who can
pay,and solicitors will see Legal Aid work as a sideline
only.
It is questionable whether, in the area of Family Law,
solicitors would be prepared to get involved in time
consuming court work for Maintenance Orders, or in
drawing up Separation Agreements.
Despite the desire to help, the experience necessary to
give people a good service will be lacking. One glance at
the subjects taught to prospective solicitors will confirm
this—where is the provision made for the detailed teaching
of Family Law, Labour Law, or Social Welfare Law, for
example—yet these three areas accounted for nearly 50%
of FLAC work in the period 1975/76, and these are
precisely the areas where people using Legal Aid will
want help.
If the Legal Aid Scheme fails to alter the type of work
done by solicitors, it will also fail on the question of
physical accessibility for Legal Aid clients.
Solicitors base themselves in those areas where they
are likely to get the most work of the type that brings
them their profit—therefore most offices in Dublin are in
places easily accessible to their traditional class of client,
and Legal Aid is unlikely to draw them away from such
areas. For example in the Dublin postal areas 5, 9, and
13 (i.e. those immediately around Coolock) there are two
solicitors' offices listed in the 1976 telephone book, from a
list of approximately 350. It is this situation which I do
not see Legal Aid putting right. Also the problem is even
greater than the actual distance a person from Coolock
might have to travel to see a solicitor, for in effect they
will be seeing someone who could be 1,000 miles from
Coolock, someone who will have no special knowledge of
the area, and who will in all probability be more interested
in dealing with work which will bear no relationship to
that person's needs. And even once having arrived at this
office, the client then will have to undergo a means test in
order to get Legal Aid. He will be given a long tedious
form to fill in which will require many details of his
private affairs—and all this even before he begins to get
help with his problem. For all these reasons therefore, I
do not consider Legal Aid as being the answer, to making
justice readily accessible in this country.
It is the gaps that a Legal Aid Scheme will leave that
Community Law Centres can fill.
From a casework aspect, such Centres will be
accessible to the people in the Communities they serve,
and will be experienced in the type of casework that
arises. Such centres will not be involved in work which is
completely removed from the needs of people in the area.
But over and above this case work aspect, a
Community Law Centre has an educational role to fulfill.
No Legal Aid Scheme, however comprehensive will
actually tell people what their rights are in the first place,
in order that they can benefit fully from Legal Aid. In this
area in Coolock for example we plan a publicity
campaign on the Supplementary Welfare Act, and we
hope to organise a Citizen's Rights Course. There is an
enormous job to be performed in this field, because so
often rights are not recognised as such, but rather as
favours to be obtained by the local Deputy and a bit of
pull.
A Community Law Centre has also the task of actively
supporting organised groups within its area that are
seeking better facilities and conditions for the people of
the area. It is organisations such as Tenants Associations,
and Trade Unions which are the real strength of working
class people, and any Community Law Centre worth its
salt, places itself firmly in a position of supporting such
groups, and in no way as a sort of go-between between
the establishment and the people of the area. It is vital
that any future development of Law Centres in this country
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