Student legal advice partnership in East Anglia & new London law centre
A new partnership between Norfolk Community Law Service and the University of East Anglia will allow student volunteers to provide legal advice and representation to clients. The University will also provide financial assistance of £25,000 a year. The scheme will benefit not only the service users but also students who will be able to gain practical experience and legal skills.
Click here to read an article from ITV news.
A new law centre in Ealing in London has been set up after receiving a grant of £200,000. A great need has arisen for free legal services in this area of London since the collapse last year of “Law for All”, a service providing legal assistance to the more vulnerable members of the community. The Guardian newspaper also notes that Rochdale and Islington Law Centres will be taking on private-fee paying work. It is hoped that through such services the centres will be able to “produce a modest income to contribute to some measure of free service in those areas out of scope of public funding”.
Trust account interest to plug UK legal aid cuts?
A debate has arisen in the UK over whether the interest on lawyers’ trust accounts could be used to help fund access to justice, in light of impending legal aid cuts in that jurisdiction. This would mean that client money held by firms could be pooled, with the increased interest on the combined resources being used to fund law centres and other advice services. The Law Society Gazette reports that the suggestion comes from Julie Bishop, the Director of the Law Centres Federation. Bishop acknowledges however that a national scheme would be needed to make it worthwhile and even then it would be merely “a drop in the ocean”. Helen Rogers, pro bono manager at Allen & Overy, reported that their firm had run such a scheme since 2005 and had raised around £250,000 for the London Legal Support Trust.
Click here to see an article in the Law Society Gazette.
Debate about the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act
An informative debate on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act was hosted recently by online magazine the Justice Gap and Hackney Community Law Centre in London. “Community Justice: do we get it?” featured panelists including Lord Willy Bach, the former justice secretary who led the opposition to LASPO in the House of Lords and Roger Smith, the Director of human rights organisation Justice.
Jon Robins, the Chair of the debate, opened the discussion with an overview of LASPO. He said that one of the objectives of the legislation is to remove £350m from a £2.2 billion budget, and that from April 2013 it will remove funding for social welfare law and family (except where there is evidence of domestic violence). Introduction of the Act will mean that 77,000 Londoners will lose out on assistance. Lord Willy Bach called LASPO a “deliberate attack on social welfare law – the law of everyday life”. He further stated that the Act was a false economy and would not succeed in saving money, because generally early timely advice solves a problem which then removes the need for the State to “pick up the pieces at the end”. Matthew Ryder QC from Matrix Chambers in London called for a media campaign to reframe how the public sees legal aid and to move away from the idea of “fat cat lawyers”. He argued that ‘publicly-funded law should rank in importance alongside the NHS, public housing and education’. A summary of the debate is available via the link below.
Click here to read an article from The Justice Gap.
New Canadian access to justice app
Meanwhile in Canada, a new free mobile app has been launched as an access to justice initiative. The free app, WiseLii, gives increased mobile access to legal information, legislation and case law to Canadians. The app’s creator, Toronto lawyer Gerry Wise, stated that, “as it evolved, the app’s usefulness to the general public as an access to justice tool became increasingly clear – free information democratized justice”. The app is available to download free from iTunes.
Click here to read a news article about this development.
Centre for Asia-Pacific Pro Bono launched in Australia
In Australia, the Centre for Asia-Pacific Pro Bono (CAPPB) was launched by the Law Council of Australia and the Attorney-General’s office on 16 July. The CAPPB is a pro bono initiative that aims to improve access to justice in the Asia-Pacific region and already has eight law firms signed up. The CAPPB matches applications from assistance from the Asia-Pacific region with CAPPB registered legal practitioners and law practices. Professor Sally Walker, speaking to Lawyers Weekly, said that “(the initiative) aims to benefit organisations in the Asia-Pacific with needs-based pro bono projects and offer opportunities to legal practitioners and law firms in Australia to engage with regional partners...It is through these kinds of constructive partnerships that we can all contribute to building stability in the region through better access to justice and ensuring the maintenance of the rule of law”.