Lawyer Monthly - December 2021 Edition

15 DEC 2021 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM but we as a legal community, for a variety of reasons which no doubt we will come onto, make a case badly. In civil legal aid, again, the pot used to be large. In other words, there was a broad landscape of civil legal aid available to a broad range of people. Now, it was not the case that anybody could just go and get civil legal aid, either for family disputes or for housing matters. This was not some sort of bonanza. it was never means- tested in the way it is now. You could go into it and find out in rich detail about how this has eroded over time, but the reality is that we went from a position where the powerless, or those who had the least access to network – which is the critical currency in getting a problem resolved – would have access to a lawyer, usually at first instance with one letter that could solve that particular problem, to the reverse. To use an example, in family law you may now have a toxic breakup where there are a range of issues – violence, for example – towards one of the spouses, usually the female spouse: no legal aid. I have become an ambassador for Shelter, and I can tell you personally the number of cases where access to a lawyer at first instance would have resolved somebody’s problem, when they are living not just in bad housing but in housing which is in breach of every conceivable regulation imaginable. Special educational needs is another area of absolute critical importance that is now beyond the reaches not of some people, but of most people, and that is completely scandalous. What I often wonder is, if you have a problem, who in your firm could you get in touch with that would be able to assist you, that could act as an advocate on your behalf, that could know the law? Could you, for example, come up with the money to pay that person? For most people, and it bears infinite repetition, that is simply not the case. We, then, as a legal community, need to ask ourselves a very challenging question: what does it say about access to justice? What does it say about those individuals? Yes, there are a number of corporations and various law firms who are responding, but I am afraid to say it is nothing but scratching the surface of a very, very deep problem. Again, I hope you will forgive me for