Government provision of free legal aid does not meet the demand for legal services, according to the voluntary Free Legal Advice Centres, writes Carol Coulter. About 90 per cent of cases dealt with by the Legal Aid Board are in the area of family law. While this is a significant category among the cases dealt with by FLAC, it amounts to only 28.4 per cent of the total. In all, FLAC handled 4,189 cases last year.
In a report earlier this year the Law Society also called for an expansion of civil legal aid.