Research
April 2009 On the edge of the abyss: legal aid from 2010
Article in Legal Action Group Magazine in April 2009 by Gareth Mitchell and Stephen Pierce, solicitors at Pierce Glynn.
The authors examine the research evidence relied on by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to justify its proposals for non-family civil legal aid from 2010 and propose that improving the experiences of civil legal aid users requires an alternative path of reform.
April 2009 Civil Legal Aid in Ireland: Forty Years On
Research by the Free Legal Advice Centre (Flac) in Dublin found that 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. 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.
Flac Director, Noeline Blackwell said, ‘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. 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. 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 showed that the three areas of law most commonly dealt with were 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.
The research is contained in a report, ‘Civil Legal Aid in Ireland: Forty Years On’, published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the foundation of Flac on 25th April. Copy here: Civil Legal Aid in Ireland 40 Years On.pdf
Article in the Irish Times, ‘Greater access to legal aid’ published on 26th April 2009: Greater Access to Legal Aid Irish Times April 09.doc
Article in the Irish Times, ‘Flac’s 40 years of taking cases on social and equality issues’: 40 years of FLAC Irish Times.doc The article includes a brief history of Flac.
March 2009 Research on Tribunals
‘Tribunals Ain’t What They Used To Be‘, by Professor Michael Adler of Edinburgh University looked at five tribunals. These were the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeal Panel; the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal; the Additional Support Needs Tribunal (Scotland); Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunals (England); and the Employment Tribunal.
In Employment cases, the ‘representation premiums’ of represented claimants over those claimants had received pre-hearing advice were 15 per cent where the employer present and / or represented and 8 per cent where the employer was neither present nor represented. However, those who represented themselves without receiving any pre-hearing advice did as well or better than those who represented themselves after receiving pre-hearing advice. One possible explanation for this unexpected finding is that those who had received pre-hearing advice but were not represented had weaker cases, and were not represented for that reason, while those did not receive any pre-hearing advice actually had stronger cases. For the sample as a whole, the ‘representation premium’ was 4 per cent over those who had received pre-hearing advice and 7 per cent over those who had not. In 1989, research by Dame Prof. Hazel Genn found that the premium was 30 per cent to 48 per cent in Industrial Tribunals.
Note on the research: ‘Tribunals aint what they used to be’.pdf
In 2007, useful empirical research on Tribunals between 1992 and 2007 was carried out by Martin Partington, Ed Kirton-Darling and Frances McClenaghan.
Research: Empirical Research.pdf
February 2009 Measuring the outcomes of Housing Advice
ASA has published a report on its pilot work with Southwark Law Centre to collect information about the outcomes of its housing law work.
Working with Law Centre housing solicitors, ASA developed a questionnaire to ask clients about how the Law Centre’s work had affected their lives. The questionnaire asked how clients’ legal problems had affected their health and stress levels, their relationships with family, and their ability to take part in social activities and stay involved in work, education or training. It also asked whether their lives had improved in these areas after their cases had closed.
Click to download a copy: Measuring the outcomes of Housing Advice Feb 09.pdf
February 2009 SRA Survey of Consumers
A large majority of consumers who have used a solicitor in the past five years are satisfied with the service they received, according to a survey commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Consumer research study 2008: A survey of public attitudes towards solicitors conducted on behalf of the Solicitors Regulation Authority February 2009 Consumer Research 2008.pdf
‘We were also keen to explore the experiences of different demographic groups—in particular we decided to look closely at differences between the experiences of the general public in using legal services, and those of disabled people, and black and minority ethnic people.’
Consumer Research BME People 2008.pdf
Consumer Research Disabled People 2008.pdf
2007 Survey: Consumer Views 2007.pdf
January 2009 LSRC Research into CLANs and CLACs
In January 2009, the Legal Services Research Centre announced details of their research on CLACs (Community Legal Advice Centres) and CLANs (Community Legal Advice Networks)
The Legal Services Research Centre (LSRC), is the independent research division of the Legal Services Commission (LSC), and has responsibility for in-depth research on Community Legal Advice Centres and Networks. The research will be conducted by the LSRC and Manchester Metropolitan University and Cardiff University.
The LSRC has developed a research strategy comprising two main elements: a process study and an outcome study. These are described separately below but together will examine the experiences of stakeholders, including clients, involved in the commissioning, set up, provision and receipt of services. The research design has been informed by visits to several CLACs where we observed advice sessions and spoke with managers and providers, receiving useful information and advice to guide the research.
The research will report at the end of 2009.
Details here: LSRC Research on CLACs and CLANS Jan 09.doc
Website: LSRC
December 2008 NEF Research - The Socio-Economic Value of Law Centres
The Law Centres Federation commissioned the New Economics Foundation (nef) to assist with the production of a short piece of research examining the socio-economic value of the impacts of the work of Law Centres.
The estimates produced for the socio-economic benefits produced by the case studies reviewed demonstrate the significant socio-economic value that Law Centres provide to the individuals they assist, and other stakeholders affected by the intervention.
• For the individual case study reviewed, every £1 invested generated benefits in excess of £15.
• For the public legal education programme, every £1 invested generated benefits of £25.
Research conducted by nef:
NEF Socio-Economic Benefits of Law Centres.pdf
Other Publications
Unintended Consequences: How the efficiency agenda erodes local public services and a new public benefit model to restore them (2007):
Unintended Consequences.pdf
National Accounts of Well-being - Bringing real wealth onto the balance sheet (January 2009):
National Accounts of Well Being Jan 09.pdf
See NEF website for further research: New Economics Foundation (NEF)
November 2008 Side by Side and implications for public services
Paper published by the Council on Social Action in November 2008.
“The arrangements government puts in place for purchasing advice services have an important influence over the ability of organisations to work in these ways. Focusing on the area of civil legal aid advice, CoSA would like over the coming months to assess the ways in which current practice delivers against the criteria of productive one-to-one relationships and identify ways in which the funding and administration of social welfare legal aid might be improved in order to achieve the most productive relationships between advisers and clients. This will require detailed work on how the public sector and the voluntary sector combine to generate transformative outcomes. It will have to explore issues concerning the measurement of outcomes and on how to reflect particularly valuable ways of working in contract specifications and agreements. If this approach proves useful here then it could have a lot to teach other areas.”
A copy can be downloaded here: Side by Side COSA 11 08.pdf
CoSA website: Council on Social Action
November 2008 Civil and Social Justice Research 2007
Report by the Legal Services Research Centre on the 2007 survey. 3658 people were interviewed for the survey and 36% of respondents reported having a civil justice or rights problem, the same figure as in 2006.
There was an increase in the incidence of consumer and money/debt problems and a decrease in neighbour and rented housing problems. As in previous surveys, incidence of problems was not randomly distributed across the survey group: lone parents, those on benefits, those who have a long-term illness or disability and victims of crime report problems more often than others.
Civil justice problems were again found to have other adverse consequences such as stress-related illness, physical ill health and loss of income. Over four-fifths of those who suffered physical and stress-related ill health visited a GP, hospital or health worker as a direct result of their problem(s).
Advice Services Alliance note that those respondents eligible for legal aid reported more negative consequences of problems. 38% of respondents eligible for legal aid reported stress-related ill health as a consequence of their problem compared to 23% of other respondents.
2007 Civil and Social Justice Survey.pdf Published 2008
September 2008 It’s the System Stupid! Radically Rethinking Advice
AdviceUK’s report ‘It’s the System Stupid! Radically Rethinking Advice’, funded by the Baring Foundation, shows that wasteful public services and legal advice reforms are preventing advisers from meeting the needs of vulnerable people.
The report’s key findings are:
Advice agencies struggle to cope with demand caused by the failings of the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and Housing Benefit Offices, yet win 90% of such cases on procedural grounds.
Advice services are hampered by contractual restrictions. For example, Legal Aid reforms have led advice organisations to restrict the things they could do for clients in order to meet targets. One of the main recommendation from the report is to reconsider top-down initiatives such as Legal Aid reforms and plans for jointly commissioned ‘super-centres’.
The Report of AdviceUK’s RADICAL Advice Project October 2007 - June 2008 is here:
Radically Rethinking Advice 09.08.pdf
