FLAC launches Annual Report

The Hon. Mr Justice Frank Clarke, former Chief Justice of Ireland and Chair of the Civil Legal Aid Review Group, launched FLAC’s 2022 Annual Report, ‘Bringing Access to Justice Together’, at 9:30am on Monday, 10 July 2023.

The report outlines FLAC’s impact and achievements in 2022. FLAC’s services include the Telephone Information & Referral Line, the Free Legal Advice Clinics, the legal assistance offered to social justice organisations through PILA, legal education and training. Litigation in the public interest and strategic casework is another important area of activity for FLAC. Policy proposals arose from this casework, as in 2022, FLAC submitted papers on access to justice and equality legislation to IHREC’s Future of Equality Legislation Committee, on Gender Equality to the JOC, on a Referendum on Housing to the Housing Commission Consultation, on Youth Homelessness and others.  

While FLAC’s Telephone Line answered 13,556 calls in 2022, they are acutely aware and gravely concerned that at least 4,400 people could not get through to the Telephone Line. Another cause of concern is the sustained demand for employment law information and advice (including over 2000 callers to the FLAC Telephone Line) without anywhere to refer callers who cannot afford a private solicitor for legal representation. There is also nowhere to refer the 970 lay litigants who contacted FLAC and who are struggling to navigate the complex court system by themselves.

Through their casework, FLAC sees first-hand the dire consequences (including the risk of extreme poverty and homelessness) of unmet legal need in areas such housing, social welfare, and discrimination which are outside the scope of the current scheme of Civil Legal Aid.

Public legal assistance should act as a preventative safety net – resolving legal problems as early as possible and avoiding or minimising the impact that they have on people’s lives. The unacceptable gaps in the current system of Civil Legal Aid leaves people exposed to the serious, and potentially catastrophic, consequences of unmet legal need. FLAC cannot fill the gaps in the current system. We need to reimagine how the State provides public legal assistance and empower and resource State bodies such as the Legal Aid Board, the Citizens Information, and IHREC to provide preventative legal services.

In 2022, PILA facilitated 48 social justice organisations to receive legal assistance through the Pro Bono Referral Scheme, ran 4 NGO Pitch Events, 10 Legal Education Sessions and published 25 issues of the PILA Bulletin. PILA also hosted the Pro Bono Week 2022, and formed the Ukraine Legal Panel. In partnership with Arthur Cox, FLAC and the PILS Project, PILA compiled a series of 5 Guides designed to assist NGOs, North and South, to navigate the justice system, and worked with McCann Fitzgerald LLP to produce an updated Data Protection Guide for NGOs.

David Fennelly BL, FLAC Chairperson, commented:

“FLAC is an active participant in the current Civil Legal Aid Review and we hope that this annual report will inform the Review and its outcomes. As well as illustrating that new approaches to public legal assistance are possible and workable, this report makes it clear that achieving access to justice for all requires a range of measures from information to advocacy, training, representation, research and law reform.

It also requires innovation, responsiveness and, above all, collaboration. Throughout 2022, FLAC was pleased to work with our valued volunteers, law firms undertaking pro bono work, public bodies such as IHREC and CIB, FLAC Student Societies, barristers instructed by our Independent Law Centre, academics and other civil society and community organisations. The work and dedication of each of those groups leaves me with no doubt that, through the ongoing Review process and beyond, it is only by working together that we can ensure effective access to justice for all.”

 Mr Justice Frank Clarke noted:

"While the Civil Legal Aid review group has not as yet reached any conclusions it seems to me that we have to closely consider the place that NGOs such as FLAC and others play in the overall delivery of appropriate legal assistance or representation to those who cannot afford it. It may well be that one size does not fit all and that an enhanced role for NGOs may be part of the solution. That, of course , raises the inevitable question of funding. Much good work by bodies such as FLAC is done by volunteers but adequate funding is also very neccessary."

Click here for the FLAC Annual Report 2022.