Access to legal system blocked by delays to civil aid reform, campaigners warn
Stephanie Lord, a legal and policy officer with the Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac), which provides free and confidential legal advice to the public, said she was “dismayed” that the review had not yet commenced. Families are being blocked from accessing the legal system due to a delay in reforming the civil legal aid process, campaigners have warned.
The warning came after Justice Plan 2022, which was published two weeks ago, altered the timeline of a promised review of the civil legal aid system. The 2021 plan had committed to commencing a review in quarter three of last year but this year’s plan states that “progress” on the review will be made in quarter four of this year.
According to those providing legal services in Ireland, the timeline change will have implications for families and low-income people who can struggle to access civil legal advice or representation because of the cost of legal fees. They believe the system is in urgent need of reform and a “root and branch review” was the first step towards enacting change.
At present, a person must have an annual disposable income of less than €18,000 and disposable assets of less than €100,000, excluding their home, to qualify for civil legal aid through the Legal Aid Board. The exceptions to this include certain international child abduction and foreign maintenance cases. Civil law disputes often involve marriage breakdowns and issues involving children.
FLAC's Stephanie Lord commented “it's not clear to us why it has been delayed and it has to happen soon because the system as it stands cannot continue to function in this way... Flac, and services like ours, are providing services to essentially attempt to plug a gap for what the Legal Aid Board can’t provide.”
Lord said Flac’s phone lines have been inundated in recent months, with initial figures indicating an increased demand throughout all of last year. In 2020, FLAC received over 12,000 calls and supported nearly 5,000 people through free legal advice and clinics.
Another area of concern, and one which Lord hopes will be addressed in a review, was the amount of time people who qualified for legal aid were waiting for an appointment with a solicitor. She said this can be up to 31 weeks in some instances.
In one example provided by a phone line manager with Flac, a woman in a domestic violence shelter was unable to get a solicitor assigned and was concerned that her husband, who had representation, was making an application to travel abroad with their children. Flac e-mailed the woman with details on how to get a further adjournment so she could be represented before this application was made.
More than 40 organisations, including Flac, the National Woman’s Council of Ireland (NWCI), the Children’s Rights Alliance, and the Irish Refugee Council signed a letter in July 2021 calling for a civil legal aid review to be comprehensive and meaningful.
Mary Roche, a policy officer with Treoir, which provides services for unmarried parents and their children, said the Legal Aid Board did good work but did not have the funding to help all those who need it. She said many low-income people had “cascading” legal issues which may start with family law matters and move into housing and other areas.
“Peope who can’t afford solicitors are self representing and calling us after saying they are unable to follow what was happening,” she said, noting that there are so many “human elements” to a lack of access to legal advice.
“Family issues are very fractious and very emotional and it’s not good for the children. We have always believed that access to legal aid and legal representation is a critical part of access to justice,” she said.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said Helen McEntee, the Justice Minister, was committed to undertaking a review of the Civil Legal Aid Scheme. He said the department was currently working to “finalise the mode and terms of reference of the review”. “Since the Civil Legal Aid Scheme was established over 40 years ago, Irish society has changed and the demands on the scheme have grown. ... To provide maximum benefit to those it was established to serve, within the finite resources available to fund legal aid, a robust, comprehensive review of the scheme is now timely,” he said.
Article originally appeared in the Sunday Business Post 03/04/2022