Press Release
Making Legal Rights a Reality
13 July 2005
Civil legal and advice services that are more focused on people in greatest need, more coordinated and cost-effective and better geared to tackle the common causes of legal problems are proposed today by the Legal Services Commission (LSC).
The LSC is consulting on its strategy for the Community Legal Service (CLS), Making Legal Rights a Reality, which advocates a radical new approach to the way civil legal and advice services are funded, purchased and delivered.
The strategy is central to the Government’s vision for legal aid, A Fairer Deal for Legal Aid, launched earlier this month.
The LSC is responsible for understanding the need for advice, promoting joined up services and funding civil legal aid. Currently, LSC funding alone ensures that more than 800,000 people a year receive civil legal aid and advice for problems in areas such as divorce, domestic violence, housing, debt and welfare benefits at a cost of nearly £850 million. Many other general advice services are funded by local authorities and other government departments. Together these services make up the CLS.
But CLS Director Crispin Passmore said LSC research showed that up to 1 million legal problems went unsolved each year. Only about half of people with legal problems sought advice, and one in seven tries but fails to get help.
"Clearly if legal advice isn’t being accessed on that sort of scale, the CLS still has work to do to meet its core objective of protecting and promoting the rights of vulnerable people," Mr Passmore said.
"In some places it can be difficult for people to find the specialist advice they need if the preferences of law firms and advice agencies determine what services are available locally. It is unrealistic to expect every town to have a wide range of legal aid practitioners in every area of law, but it is reasonable for us to commission services in locations where clients need them rather than where suppliers might otherwise choose to provide them."
The key proposals within Making Legal Rights a Reality are:
- Piloting Community Legal and Advice Centres in the most deprived communities, where clients will be able to get legal help for a range of social welfare problems. It’s common for people needing help with employment or benefits issues to also have problems with debt and housing but currently they may have to seek help from different solicitors or agencies specialising in different areas of law. The centres would be jointly-funded and deliver a seamless service, from basic advice to specialist representation in the highest courts.
- Piloting Community Legal and Advice Networks, using the joined-up approach proposed for the centres in areas where a good network of service providers already exists. Rather than funding law firms or agencies to operate independently, they would be commissioned to form a network that can deliver an integrated service tailored to the needs of the region so that when a client walks in one door they are accessing the full range of services of the whole network.
- Expanding the CLS national telephone and advice services to improve access to legal and advice services and achieve greater value for money. The CLS Direct phone line has achieved great success since it was launched a year ago - receiving 200,000 calls from people needing advice with welfare, debt and education issues. This month the service was expanded to include housing and employment. The strategy proposes further expansion to provide more people with access to front line information, advice and assistance.
LSC data shows strong demand for, and satisfaction with, telephone services. Already half of all legal aid clients make first contact with their advisor by telephone and half of these go on to resolve their problem without any face-to-face contact. Feedback from people who have used CLS Direct shows that over 80 per cent have already recommended the service to someone else.
- Tackling the causes of problems. Legal and advice service providers witness the same kinds of problems repeatedly when public services fail to meet their statutory duties or when commercial companies mislead or exploit their customers. A great deal of time and money could be saved, and distress avoided, by tackling the source of common problems rather than dealing with the symptoms by repeated individual legal actions.
With this unique view of the pattern of problems that people face, the CLS can offer a cost-effective approach to improving services. It will focus on raising awareness of the issues, negotiation and (where this fails) litigation.
- Improving information about legal rights and responsibilities. Such information currently exists but the complexity of the advice sector and the number of different sources of information can make it difficult for consumers to find what they need. By working with others, particularly the Department for Constitutional Affairs, we will promote trusted sources and help people to navigate through the advice available.
The proposals will produce a service that is designed around the needs of clients, give the CLS a new role in solving the causes of problems and greater flexibility for tackling local issues, promote a better awareness of legal rights, introduce better quality assurances, and create a more cost-efficient and coordinated legal aid system.
Bridget Prentice MP, the legal aid Minister, welcomed the strategy saying:
"Over the last five years the CLS has made real improvements to the quality of advice provided to people and really started to join up specialist and general advice services. In Making Legal Rights a Reality the LSC is setting out a way forward that moves the focus of civil legal aid resolutely on to clients. I hope that all those involved in the important work of the CLS embrace this opportunity to ensure that we can deliver the legal and advice services that people need."
Media information
Richard Shand
Tel: 020 7759 0493
Email: richard.shand@legalservices.gov.uk
Gary Spink
Tel: 020 7759 0491
Email: gary.spink@legalservices.gov.uk
Notes to editors
1. Making Legal Rights a Reality is the LSC’s strategy for developing the CLS over the next five years. Its launch marks the beginning of a 3-month consultation on the proposals.
2. The LSC will follow the consultation by publishing a series of policy papers that will set out in more detail how each of the different elements of the strategy will be taken forward. These papers will contain detailed timescales but the LSC expects to begin some pilots in 2005/06.
3. Copies of Making Legal Rights a Reality are available from Richard Shand or Gary Spink and at civil consultations page of this website.
4. The Department for Constitutional Affairs published A Fairer Deal for Legal Aid on 5 July 2005 (DCA press notice 178/05) and is available here
Last updated: 28 December 2006