The Gazette 1995

GAZETTE

N E W S

The Civil Legal Aid Bill, 1995

JULY 1995

by Sabha Greene*

In March of this year the Minister for

Equality and Law Reform,

Mervyn

Taylor,

TD, introduced the Civil Legal

Aid Bill in the Seanad'. The purpose of

the Bill is to place the Scheme of Civil

Legal Aid and Advice

on a statutory

basis, but it provides foronly limited

improvements. This may be due to the

fact that the Bill has been drafted in the

absence of any formal evaluation of the

15 year old service. While the Free

Legal Advice Centres have long

campaigned for the Scheme to be

placed on a statutory footing, it is

regrettable that its inadequacies are to

remain virtually intact.

It was in the late 1960s that the

campaign for the introduction of legal

aid in civil cases began to gain

momentum, with the establishment in

1969 of FLAC, an organisation with the

stated aim of campaigning for the

introduction of civil legal aid. In 1975

the Coolock Community Law Centre

was set up, to this day the only example

of an independent community based

law centre in Ireland. Soon after, in

1977 the Pringle Committee

made its

report to the Department of Justice with

the majority favouring the introduction

of a comprehensive State service for

those unable to afford private lawyers.

The Committee went on to make

recommendations for a scheme of civil

legal aid and advice, which included

the establishment of community based

law centres, an active role in making

recommendations for law reform, and

an obligation to provide education

services. However, it was not until the

decision of the European Court of

Human Rights in the 1979 case of

Airey

-v- Ireland*

that the government

established the Scheme of Civil Legal

Aid and Advice. In 1980 the Minister

appointed the Legal Aid Board and the

first Law Centre was opened.

Since then the Department of Equality

and Law Reform has been created and

responsibility for civil legal aid moved

Sabha

Greene

to the new ministry. This marked a

fresh commitment to legal aid and

since his appointment the Minister has

secured significant increases in

funding. However, the nature of the

service remains largely unchanged

since its inception, and it has become

an almost exclusively family law

representation service, a fact evident

from the most recent figures published

by the Legal Aid Board

LEGAL AID CERT I F ICATES

AWARDED IN FAMI LY LAW - 1,791

L EGAL AID CERT I F I CATES

AWARDED IN OTHER CAS ES - 63

This development is due to a number

of factors. Firstly, many areas of law

are excluded from the remit of the

Board. For example, there is no legal

aid for defamation, property disputes

or debt enforcement. Not only are

certain areas of law excluded but also

certain types of case such as group

actions or where the subject matter of

the application is of "a kind commonly

described as a test case". The Pringle

Committee addressed this question and

made the following conclusion:

". . . in a comprehensive scheme,

legal aid should be available for all

types of civil proceedings. There

seems to us to be no logical basis on

which any particular case category

could be excluded. The merits of any

case and the question of granting

legal aid should be assessed, not by

reference to the category to which it

belongs, but by reference to the

particular circumstances of the

case."

Furthermore, where the matter is to be

dealt with at a tribunal, such as the

Employment Appeals Tribunal or the

Social Welfare Appeals Officers, the

Scheme and the Bill provide that legal

aid is to be refused, albeit that the Bill

enables the Minister to include

tribunals by Order in the future.

However, during the recent Committee

Stage of the Seanad's debate, a

number of Senators successfully

proposed an amendment to extend

immediately legal aid to such

tribunals.

As well as the emphasis being firmly

on the area of family law, civil legal

aid has developed as a purely

representational service. It was

designed to assist those who wish to

enforce a legal right but are unable to

afford paid legal representation. Yet

research clearly demonstrates that lack

of finance is only one reason that

people do not have access to the

justice system. A lack of awareness of

one's legal rights and obligations can

be as great a factor in ensuring that

people do not have equality of access.

In its deliberations the Pringle

Committee recognised that there are

many reasons why people living in

poverty are deterred from seeking the

services of solicitors. Apart from a

lack of finance they also identified a

lack of awareness of one's legal rights

as a reason why people do not

approach lawyers. Similarly there is a

lack of knowledge as to the services

which are available. Many people

affected by poverty do not see their

problems as having a legal solution,

for example housing or social welfare

issues. Others, while recognising that

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