The Gazette 1980

JULY-AUGUST

1

GAZETTE

President's Review

A strong speech by the President, Walter Beatty, to the half-yearly meeting of the Society, focussed attention on the weaknesses of the free civil legal aid scheme and was widely reported in the newspapers. He said, in part, that the Society has advocated a free civil legal aid scheme for many years. It made representations to the Department of Justice, which were ignored, and a scheme which provides seven law centres was introduced without reference to the Society. "We welcome the introduction of a free legal aid scheme, but sadly this welcome is on the basis of'any scheme is better than no scheme at all'. We hope that what has been introduced is merely an interim scheme, and, if it is expanded to take into account the location and the expertise of this profession as a whole, it can become a good scheme, and I would urge that the Department of Justice would broaden the scheme to do just that. There is no objection to law centres in the big cities, but these cannot serve rural Ireland. People will become suspicious of it because in areas like Waterford, Sligo and Galway, in matters of family law, travelling necessities will dictate those involved in a broken marriage attending the same centre. This is highly undesirable. Can you imagine the same firm of solicitors acting for husband and wife in dispute? NO CHOICE "In the booklet issued to the Oireachtas last December, there is a most misleading heading 'Choice of Lawyer'. There is no choice of lawyer. There is only choice of a lawyer in a centre, and that means that in Dublin somebody either has to move from Ballymun to Tallaght — or maybe travel all the way to Galway. The lawyers in the centre — and this is the only service that is envisaged at this stage — will be paid civil servants, and, if they are not very good, or if you had a row with them previously, or if you are involved in a broken marriage and do not believe that the one centre should act for your husband as well as yourself, then you must go to another centre. "There is a means test, and most people will be contributing towards the cost of the scheme. Therefore, they should have the right to choose their own lawyer. The dispensary system was abolished approximately ten years ago, and since then there has been choice of doctor. The same principle was applied recently in relation to opthalmic services. "Take Mayo, where there is no centre. It is a small farmer agricultural county and the only appreciable industrial towns are Ballina, Castlebar and Westport. The nearest centres will be in Galway and Sligo. There will be two lawyers in the centre in Sligo who will be dealing with that county, County Donegal, County Monaghan, County Cavan, County Leitrim, County Roscommon, parts of Longford and Westmeath, and, most important of all, with Co. Mayo. TRAVEL PROBLEMS "A Mayo person living in Belmullet, if they want to

avail of free civil legal aid at the centre in Sligo must telephone to make an appointment, because otherwise the two lawyers may be out at the many District Courts that they will have the impossible task of trying to cover. Then, unless they possess a car — unlikely if they are looking for free civil legal aid — they must leave Belmullet at 7 a.m., and probably arrive in Sligo between noon and 1 p.m. They would then be faced with returning from Sligo that evening to Ballina at approximately 8 p.m., and there would be no connection to their home in Belmullet from Ballina at that hour. What about the travelling cost? A ticket from Ballina to Galway, or Ballina to Sligo, would cost approximately £4.50 and £3.00 return respectively. If it is a family law case, the aided person will have to travel probably at least on three occasions to the centre, and the lawyers in the centre, who are covering the District Courts, may on occasions have to travel anything up to 120 miles at an average cost of 25p per mile. "In Mayo there are 19 towns in which the District Court sits, and this means that in that county alone there are 19 days out of every 20 working days in every month in which the Distrcit Court is sitting. In addition, the Circuit Court sits at Castlebar, Westport, Ballina and Swinford during seven weeks of the year. Picture two lawyers in Sligo, who will get the brunt of that county in the first instance, trying to deal with 19 District Courts all over the county in Mayo during 20 working days every month, and also trying to deal with all the courts in Sligo, Donegal and the other counties mentioned. It can only create a cause of serious grievance in the mind of the public, who eventually, unless there is a vast improvement in the scheme, must turn its back on the centre system, which means that we, as a profession, will once more be asked to deal with this problem because it is there, and because the Department's scheme has failed. It is essential that the Department takes the necessary steps to broaden this scheme so that people will not have to travel long distances to a centre, and so that they will have a real belief in the scheme, and it is essential that the Department extends the scheme so that the profession, as a whole, is involved, a system which has worked well in other countries and is the only system which will work well here. ROLE OF THE BAR "One last point is the position of the Bar in the scheme. Some people may think that District Courts and Circuit Courts can be dealt with by barristers being in attandance. This is not an answer, because, apart from the enormous expense involved, barristers cannot appear in Court without being attended by a solicitor or by someone from his office. A breach of this rule would be considered a serious disciplinary matter by the Bar Council. INCREASE IN FEES

"Eight years ago a secretary's salary was approximately £40.00 per week. It is now well over 73