scholarly journals AN ASSESSMENT OF THE FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING A PRO BONO CULTURE AMONG LEGAL PRACTITIONERS IN NIGERIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Ifeanyi Nnadi Henry, Esq. ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Administrative Framework

Pro bono legal services are professional services rendered by lawyers or other legal experts1 to indigent and disadvantaged litigants in the society for the public good id est, in order to promote a just and equitable society. It is a subset of the principle of equal access to justice and is based on the assumption that the poor requires but cannot access justice because they lack the financial means. Using the doctrinal approach, this discourse assesses the existing legal and administrative framework for pro bono engagement by lawyers in Nigeria with a view to identifying areas of improvement. Having identified possible areas of improvement, recommendations are proffered on legislative and administrative measures towards improving the level of engagement in pro bono legal services by legal practitioners in the country.

scholarly journals Lawyers' Obligation to Provide Legal Services

1995 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justice J.C. Major
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eligibility Requirements

This article addresses ethical concerns in the legal profession and the challenge of not only providing legal services, but ensuring that the public has access to them. The author asserts that the whole profession is under an obligation to render legal services pro bono publico. Such has been the tradition since the beginning of the profession in thirteenth century Europe. The article follows the history of pro bono work since medieval times, and compares the system in the United States with that in Canada. In the U.S. there is a greater commitment by firms to provide pro bono work, whereas in Canada, it tends to be on a more ad hoc basis. Canadian lawyers too often assume that government-funded legal aid systems adequately meet the public's needs. Legal aid, however, is facing increasing financial challenges. Moreover, a large number of Canadians who do not meet the eligibility requirements cannot afford to retain a lawyer. There is a need for a modified pro bono program that will assist not only the poor, but the working class as well.

scholarly journals Lawyers, the Legal Profession & Access to Justice in the United States: A Brief History

Daedalus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-189
Author(s):  
Robert W. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
The Poor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Business Entities

Ideally, justice is a universal good: the law protects equally the rights of the rich and powerful, the poor and marginal. In reality, the major share of legal services goes to business entities and wealthy people and the prestige and prosperity to the lawyers who serve them. This essay deals with the history of access to justice–chiefly civil justice–and with the role of lawyers and organized legal professions in promoting and restricting that access. In the last century, legal professionals and others have taken small steps to provide access to legal processes and legal advice to people who could not otherwise afford them. By doing so, they have inched closer to the ideals of universal justice. Though the organized bar has repeatedly served its own interests before those of the public, and has restricted access to justice for the poor, it has been a relatively constructive force.

scholarly journals What Are We Waiting For? It’s Time to Regulate Paralegals in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 149-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Trabucco
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
Statutory Duty

Law societies in Canada have long been granted the privilege of self-regulation by the state – a privilege that comes with a statutory duty to govern in the public interest. There exists an access to justice crisis in this country. More must be done to address unmet legal needs. There is nothing new in this, but law societies across Canada are reluctant to implement at least one ready solution. Ontario introduced paralegal regulation over ten years ago with the promise that it would increase access to justice. Evidence suggests that it has done so. Yet no other Canadian jurisdiction is prepared to regulate paralegals as independent providers of legal services. Law societies’ continued resistance to the regulation of paralegals is contrary to the public interest. This paper argues that to alleviate the access to justice crisis, it is time to regulate paralegals.

Theoretical and trustees’ perspectives on the establishment of an Islamic social (Waqf) bank

Humanomics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Tahir Sabit Haji Mohammad
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Given ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
International Social ◽  
Specific Country

Purpose – This paper aims to present an alternative to current banking systems. The purpose of the paper is the optimisation of the concept of cash waqf and its management in the framework of a waqf bank and its viability. Design/methodology/approach – The study is doctrinal and empirical. Several assumptions concerning the structure and operation of the bank are made, surveyed and descriptively analysed. Findings – The concept of cash waqf could be used for the operation of a waqf bank. There was a tendency among the given group of practitioners towards a corporate international social bank, capitalised by the waqf and non-waqf assets, sought after from the public and private sectors, as well as the Muslims and non-Muslims. Research limitations/implications – Assumptions are basic. Empirical findings are based on the perspective of waqf trustees. Other stakeholders’ perspectives need further research. Practical implications – The study is expected to persuade for, and assist in the establishment of a waqf bank. Social implications – This paper could contribute to the effectiveness of waqf institutions in their delivery of public good to the poor and society. These implications are not restricted to a specific country. Charities and the poor of any society may benefit from this study if the idea of total social banking is upheld. Originality/value – This study is the first to address the structure and operation of a waqf bank empirically.

Online Courts and the Future of Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Susskind
Keyword(s):  
Legal Rights ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Court System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Global Access ◽  
Legal Technology

In Online Courts and the Future of Justice, Richard Susskind, the world’s most cited author on the future of legal services, shows how litigation will be transformed by technology and proposes a solution to the global access-to-justice problem. In most advanced legal systems, the resolution of civil disputes takes too long, costs too much, and the process is not just antiquated; it is unintelligible to ordinary mortals. The courts of some jurisdictions are labouring under staggering backlogs - 100 million cases in Brazil, 30 million in India. More people in the world now have internet access than access to justice. Drawing on almost 40 years in the fields of legal technology and jurisprudence, Susskind shows how we can use the remarkable reach of the internet (more than half of humanity is now online) to help people understand and enforce their legal rights. Online courts provide 'online judging' - the determination of cases by human judges but not in physical courtrooms. Instead, evidence and arguments are submitted through online platforms through which judges also deliver their decisions. Online courts also use technology to enable courts to deliver more than judicial decisions. These 'extended courts' provide tools to help users understand relevant law and available options, and to formulate arguments and assemble evidence. They offer non-judicial settlements such as negotiation and early neutral evaluation, not as an alternative to the public court system but as part of it. A pioneer of online courts, Susskind maintains that they will displace much conventional litigation. He rigorously assesses the benefits and drawbacks, and looks ahead, predicting how AI, machine learning, and virtual reality will likely come to dominate court service.

The Conceptualisation of Pro Bono in Singapore

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 97-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Whalen-Bridge
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Over Time

Abstract“Pro bono” is a familiar phrase in North American jurisdictions that generally refers to a lawyer’s provision of free legal services to indigent persons. The phrase “pro bono” has also come to imply a particular approach to a lawyer’s relationship to indigent persons, one that stresses the obligatory as opposed to the charitable nature of the services provided. To what extent has this phrase, and its conceptualisation of a lawyer’s role, been used in Asian jurisdictions? This article examines how one Asian jurisdiction, Singapore, conceptualises a lawyer’s relationship to indigent persons by examining newspaper usage of phrases describing legal services for indigent persons. The article argues that changes in usage over time, from free legal services and legal aid to inclusion of pro bono, coupled with increased discussions of access to justice, represent a shift to a more obligatory concept of indigent legal services. An obligatory conceptualisation potentially exerts greater pressure on lawyers to provide indigent legal services, but can also exert pressure to revise the historical lack of broad-based government funded criminal legal aid in Singapore.

GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON PUBLIC GOODS, SPECIALIZATION-BASED EXTERNAL ECONOMIES AND PATTERN OF TRADE

2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (01) ◽  
pp. 19-30
Author(s):  
SAJID ANWAR
Keyword(s):  
Simple Model ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Capital Intensity ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Industrial Good ◽  
The Public ◽  
Capital Intensive

This paper examines the link between government spending on a public good and pattern of trade in the presence of specialization-based external economies. The results presented in this paper are based on a simple model of an economy that produces one industrial, one agricultural, one public good and a large number of varieties of professional services. It is shown that, when the agricultural and the public goods are non-traded, the country where government spending is relatively large is a net-exporter of varieties of professional services; if varieties of professional services are equally (or more) capital intensive as compared to the industrial good. When the public good and varieties of professional services are non-traded, the country where government spending is relatively large may export the industrial good in exchange for the agricultural good; if the combined capital intensity of professional services and the industrial good is greater than the capital intensity of the agricultural good and the size of specialization-based external economies is sufficiently small.

scholarly journals Recent Developments in the Provision of Pro Bono Legal Services by Attorneys in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Dave Holness
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Private Practice ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
The Status ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Recent Developments

This paper focuses on legal service delivery for the indigent by attorneys in private practice acting pro bono in civil rather than criminal matters.  In this regard there have been and continue to be considerable gaps between the proper access to civil justice imperatives of constitutional South Africa and the status quo which has existed from the advent of a democratic South Africa until the present. Law as a vehicle for necessary positive change in the daily lives of South African residents is pertinently considered within the country’s woefully unequal socio-economic climate. This paper considers the role which pro bono work by private attorneys is playing and should play in promoting a more just and equitable society through proper access to justice. It explores the current position in South Africa as well as the position in selected foreign jurisdictions regarding pro bono services by attorneys in private practice in civil matters. Part of the discussion focuses on the question of whether pro bono work should be voluntary or mandatory. The merits of introducing a pro bono obligation are critically analysed by looking at the effect on both legal practitioners as well as those receiving the pro bono services. Having defined pro bono work, the practical need for pro bono work by lawyers in private practice is highlighted due to the dearth of legal aid in civil matters for indigent South Africans. Possible constitutional imperatives for the provision of free legal services in civil matters are highlighted. An important part of the paper is a reflection on some of the pro bono work being conducted by private firms of attorneys.  The paper concludes with suggestions on means for establishing a more effective pro bono system in South Africa.

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