The Gazette 1977

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 115