Fund LAB to tackle legal-aid crisis – committee
The Law Society has welcomed a report on civil legal aid that calls for urgent reform of the system and “immediate and adequate funding” for the Legal Aid Board (LAB).
The report from Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration includes 30 recommendations, some of which endorse proposals put forward by the Law Society.
The report follows the publication, by an independent review group chaired by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke SC, of both a majority and minority report on the Civil Legal Aid Scheme.
Scheme ‘a shadow’
“Decades of neglect and underfunding have left Ireland’s Civil Legal Aid Scheme a mere shadow of what it should be. This results in people being denied access to justice on a daily basis,” said Law Society President Rosemarie Loftus.
She welcomed, in particular, the committee's “recognition that meaningful reform must be built around a stronger, better-resourced Legal Aid Board”.
The president said that the report set out a roadmap for reform and pledged to work constructively with the Government, the LAB, the committee, and other interested parties on the issue.
‘Severe strain’
In its report, the committee warns that the current system is under “severe strain”, describing access to civil legal aid as “fundamental to access to justice for people on low incomes”.
Its recommendations cover resourcing, eligibility, mediation, scope, reform of the scheme, practitioner fees, stronger safeguards for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, improved mediation supports, and careful oversight of any use of AI in civil legal aid.
Committee chair Matt Carthy TD said that a “serious and growing crisis” in access to civil legal aid needed to be addressed urgently.
“The level of reform required cannot be achieved without immediate and adequate funding for the Legal Aid Board,” he stated.
“The system could collapse without investment that addresses current pressures and future responsibilities – including those arising under the incoming EU Asylum and Migration Pact,” he added.
‘Review fees for practitioners’
Among the report’s recommendations is a call, contained in the majority report of the independent review group, for an immediate review of the LAB’s capacity to administer the current scheme.
It also calls for a long-term commitment to increase funding for civil legal aid on an annual basis and to match any expansion of the LAB’s remit with extra resources – including investment in staff and technology.
The committee calls for a review of the private-practitioner scheme, under which private solicitors provide services to the LAB, to assess how to make it “financially viable” for professionals.
“The committee recommends that the salaries and fees of solicitors, barristers, and report experts are reviewed urgently to ensure that rates are adequate to retain practitioners needed to ensure access to civil legal aid for those who need it,” the report states.
Thresholds
It calls for “more generous” eligibility thresholds, adding that these should be indexed and reviewed every three years.
The committee also says that legal advice and representation should be provided under the scheme to victims of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence – even when the user exceeds financial limits.
Other recommendations include:
- The immediate establishment and resourcing of the Mediation Council,
- Extending the scope of the scheme to more civil matters and to quasi-judicial forums, with resourcing for the LAB to provide representation before these bodies, and
- Rates of pay for LAB solicitors should be immediately amended to bring parity with other solicitors employed in the civil service.