TWO-THIRDS of the legal queries received by its voluntary legal advice centres are in areas of law not dealt with by the State’s legal aid service, according to the legal rights organisation Flac.
Flac conducted research in the northeast inner city of Dublin to identify unmet legal need. This revealed that the main barriers to obtaining adequate information were lack of awareness that a legal issue exists, costs, lack of literacy skills and perceived complexities.
The research is contained in a new report, Civil Legal Aid in Ireland: Forty Years On, published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the foundation of Flac, which will be celebrated in the Mansion House, Dublin, tonight.
The organisation said that the economic downturn cannot be used as a justification to limit the protection of the rights of the individual. It called on the Government to prioritise the needs of those who require aid and assistance to access legal services.
In spite of the existence of the current civil legal aid scheme, introduced after Flac supported a case taken to the European Court of Human Rights seeking the right to legal aid, issues remain in relation to meeting the needs of marginalised groups regarding access to justice in terms of both structure and practice under the scheme, according to the report.
“Despite massive population growth, there has not been a corresponding scaling up of the Legal Aid Board,” according to Flac director Noeline Blackwell.
“As it stands, the board does not meet the standards laid down by the European Court of Human Rights in the Airey case that the right of access to the courts be ‘practical and effective’.
“The Legal Aid Board predominantly deals with family law issues in spite of its broader remit,” she said. “While family law is a very important area of law for the work of the Legal Aid Board and those who use its services, Flac’s data shows that only approximately one-third of the queries received at the 70 Flac centres nationwide relate to family law.
“A fundamental flaw in the system is the exclusion of certain areas of law, nine in total, from its remit,” she said. “Because of this restrictive nature of the civil legal scheme, many of the people who require legal aid are denied it and as a result are effectively denied access to justice.”
The survey carried out for the report showed that the three areas of law most commonly dealt with by organisations in the northeast of Dublin are local authority housing (77.5 per cent), social welfare (also 77.5 per cent) and domestic violence (72.5 per cent).
The civil legal aid scheme only offers assistance in one of these areas, domestic violence.