FLAC figures point to ‘civil legal-aid crisis’
The chief executive of FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres) says that demand for its services last year points to “nothing less than a civil legal-aid crisis”.
FLAC promotes access to justice through its helpline, clinics, casework, targeted legal services, and policy and law-reform work.
Eilis Barry was speaking as showed that its helpline received a record 539 queries related to domestic violence last year.
Rise in employment-law queries
Overall, its phoneline received an estimated 53,103 calls during opening hours during 2024, though it has the capacity to deal with only around one-fifth of these queries.
Family law was the area in which FLAC received most queries – 3,180 out of a total of 11,435.
The phoneline also answered 2,341 employment-law queries. FLAC says that queries about grievance procedures, dismissal, bullying or harassment, and discrimination were all higher than in any previous year.
FLAC’s volunteer lawyers provided legal advice to 3,731 people last year, with a 14% increase in employment-law queries.
Legal aid ‘saves money’
“As a small NGO [non-governmental organisation], we cannot begin to meet this demand, but the ways in which we work provide a blueprint for a new era of civil legal aid in this country,” said Barry.
Referring to a perception reform of civil legal aid was about “more money for lawyers”, the FLAC chief executive said that this ignored the very high cost of not providing legal aid to children, families, and communities.
Barry added that there was “a growing body of international research that shows unequivocally that investment in legal aid saves states more money than it costs”.
Legal Aid Board resources
FLAC is calling for the Legal Aid Board to be given the powers and resources to provide representation in employment, discrimination, social welfare, and housing cases.
It has also called for the provision of dedicated and targeted legal services for disadvantaged communities – including a “properly resourced” national Traveller legal service and a national network of community-law centres.
Among the recent cases involving FLAC was one where the High Court quashed an “unfair” Circuit Court decision in a Traveller family’s discrimination case because of “excessive intervention” by the Circuit Court Judge.
A school was also ordered to pay €5,000 in compensation to a student with a visual disability after the WRC found that his exclusion from the Summer Provision Scheme constituted discrimination.