ON the first day of the operation of the Civil Legal Aid Act, the Free Legal Advice Centres have called on the Minister for Law Reform to remedy its "inadequacies".
FLAC chairwoman Ms Iseult O'Malley welcomed the implementation of the Act at a joint press conference with the Coolock Community Law Centre yesterday. They had long campaigned for civil legal aid to be put on a statutory basis, she said.
The legislation is the culmination of a 17 year battle for free legal aid in civil matters. In 1979 a case was won by Mrs Josie Airey in the European Court of Human Rights, where she argued that the absence of such assistance resulted in a denial of her right to effective access to the courts, under Article 6 of the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
A Committee on Civil Legal Aid and Advice had reported in 1977 and recommended that there should be such aid for litigants who could not afford legal fees. As a result of these two pressures, a Scheme of Civil Legal Aid and Advice was introduced in July 1980.
But this was considered inadequately funded, had no role in law reform, no provision for community involvement, had unnecessary limitations on the types of cases, covered and was an administrative scheme with no statutory basis.
The introduction of a statutory civil legal aid scheme was a part of the Programme for Partnership Government, which resulted in the introduction of the Act which comes into force today.
FLAC and the Coolock Community Law Centre, however, are still concerned about access to the law. The FLAC submission to the Department of Equality and Law Reform says the barriers which impede a person's access, besides, lack of finance, include a lack of awareness of one's rights and the cultural and sociological gap between lawyers and underprivileged clients.
Therefore comprehensive legal aid should include education about individuals' rights under the law as well as representation, it said. Both organisations criticised the exclusion of certain categories of representation under the Act, in particular representation before tribunals.
They said the Act allowed the Minister for Equality and Law Reform to make regulations, to extend legal aid to representation at tribunals. These included the Employment Appeals Tribunal and before Social Welfare Appeals Officers.
They asked the Minister to get funding for such regulations, saying there were occasions, when people's rights were curtailed in such tribunals for instance when they were not legally represented.
They also appealed for the representation of client groups on the Legal Aid Board. "The majority of clients are living in poverty, with a large, proportion, being women, said Ms O Malley. Therefore groups like Women's Aid or Combat Poverty should have a presence on the board to ensure that services are targeted at those most in need, she said.
They argued against the new provision for both spouses to be represented by the same law centre, though by different solicitors. While intended for the convenience of the clients, they said that, in cases where there was violence, the abused person would be reluctant to attend a centre if there was a risk of meeting the abuser.