The Report from the 2023 Access to Justice Conference was presented to the Minister for Justice

On Wednesday, the 12^th of July, the report on the 2023 Access to Justice Conference organised by the Office of the Chief Justice in conjunction with the Law Society of Ireland, the Bar of Ireland, the Legal Aid Board and Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC) was presented to the Minister for Justice. The presentation of the report, which details the presentations and issues explored over the course of the conference on the theme of ‘Civil Legal Aid Review: An opportunity to develop a model system in Ireland’, included remarks from Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell, Joan Crawford, the Chief Executive of the Legal Aid Board, and the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.

Members of the Chief Justice’s Working Group on Access to Justice at the presentation of the report from the Conference on ‘Civil Legal Aid Review: An Opportunity to Develop a Model System in Ireland’, held in February 2023. From left to right: Ms Eilis Barry, Chief Executive of FLAC; The Hon. Mr Justice John MacMenamin, former Judge of the Supreme Court; The Hon. Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell, Chief Justice; Ms Joan Crawford, CEO of the Legal Aid Board; Mr John Lunney, Law Society of Ireland; Mr Joseph O’Sullivan BL, The Bar of Ireland.

The report outlines the contributions of the diverse range of speakers and stakeholders on the thematic subject of civil legal aid. The conference began with an introductory session by the Chief Justice, the then-Minister for Justice Simon Harris, and the Chair of the Civil Legal Aid Review Group Mr Justice Frank Clarke. This was followed by the first panel which explored ‘The Current System of Legal Aid in Ireland’ highlighting its historical development, practical operation, and shortcomings. ‘The International Experience’ was the subject of the second panel which considered the available evidence-base across the globe surrounding access to justice and the provision of civil legal aid.

Subsequently, there were a series of panels centred on ‘Mapping the Gap Between the Current System and a Model System in Ireland’ discussing ‘Alternative Models of Legal Assistance’, ‘View from the Judiciary and Statutory Bodies’, and concluding with ‘Visions for the Future’. The first primarily featured contributions from Independent Law Centres including the Immigrant Council of Ireland, Community Law and Mediation, and Mercy Law. The second included the The Hon. Paul Kelly, President of the District Court, and Sinéad Gibney, Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, amongst others. The final panel featured Nuala Jackson SC, Chair of the Legal Aid Board; Maura Derivan, President of the Law Society of Ireland; Gerry Whyte, Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin; Sara Phelan SC, Chair of the Bar of Ireland; Fiona Coyne, Chief Executive of the Citizens Information Board; and Eilis Barry, Chief Executive of FLAC. The conference was closed Mr Justice John MacMenamin, former judge of the Supreme Court, who issued a resounding reminder of the extensive societal benefits from the fundamental good of access to justice as secured by legal aid.

Highlights from Discussion

David Fennelly BL, Chairperson of FLAC and moderator of the session on ‘The International Experience’, noted the value of considering other jurisdiction’s experience with civil legal aid as it provides a further evidence for us to consider in evaluating potential changes to our domestic system. Pascoe Pleasence, Professor of Empirical Legal Studies at UCL, illustrated this point through demonstrating the role of data and research in building solutions to legal problems. He stressed that a ‘bottom-up’ perspective is crucial as it engages with the ordinary person’s experience of their problem alongside their capability to pursue its resolution through formal legal avenues.

From this perspective, the justiciable dimensions of their issue can be analysed while further accounting for its interaction with interconnected issues thereby accommodating recognition of clustered injustices in research. His analysis of the available evidence base led him to conclude that (1) a user-centred design to legal assistance should be adopted, (2) specific groups should receive targeted legal assistance, (3) outreach legal services should be pursued, and (4) to address clustered injustice there was a need for integrated solutions to multidimensional problems.

Dame Hazel Genn, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at UCL, expanded on the above through a principled analysis of access to justice as a social good. She stressed that as an ongoing process access to justice can be considered through what rights are afforded to people and which opportunities are provided to tangibly realise those rights. She further emphasised that ‘legal problems are disproportionately experienced by those who have the least capability to resolve them’. In her concluding remarks, she submitted that a proactive and preventive approach to legal assistance can in turn minimise the downstream socio-economic consequences of unresolved legal problems.

Drawing a number of these threads together was the contribution of Eilis Barry, Chief Executive of FLAC, who advocated for a conceptual shift in the provision of legal assistance in Ireland. Proposing the introduction of an expanded public legal assistance authority, she contended that ensuring access to justice should be its explicit aim. She further argued that in pursuing a user-centred approach, an indispensable requirement is recognising the varied pathways in which people may interact with legal services, particularly disadvantaged communities and groups experiencing discrimination. Through highlighting the extensive critiques directed towards the current system by international human rights bodies, she stressed that human rights and equality standards must be embedded throughout the system which notably requires a flexible and comprehensive assessment of eligibility for civil legal aid. She further highlighted the scope to develop partnerships between those providing legal services, civil society, community organisations, and broader public institutions to properly assist those seeking to access justice.

A core message echoed across these contributions is to consider a scheme of legal assistance which facilitates the holistic resolution of problems with justiciable dimensions and provides those affected with the capability to pursue this. Professor Luke Clements, Chair in Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds, offered some direction in this regard. He suggested that legal service providers should orient themselves to the ‘why’ of legal issues; to avoid isolating discrete injustices from the underlying cause in need of resolution. Evidently, the contributions covered in the report offer considerable food for thought and, helpfully, practical guidance for the potential design of a model civil legal aid scheme in Ireland.

The report can be read in full here.