scholarly journals Improving Access to Justice through Law Graduate Post-Study Community Service in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Dave Holness
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Vocational Training ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Separate Study

Access to justice for all in South Africa, as most clearly set out in sections 34 and 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, is necessary to realise various other fundamental rights and to improve living standards. There are insufficient free legal services available to the indigent in South Africa, especially in civil matters, thereby often making meaningful access to justice unattainable. This study considers possible approaches, challenges and opportunities for law graduate community service in South Africa (hereinafter "community service") to expand the ambit and impact of free legal services to the indigent. This would promote the constitutional imperative of access to justice, focussing on civil matters. This study concentrates on the access to justice potential of and challenges to such community service. Such challenges will be shown to include its proper utilisation and control through the adequate supervision of graduates. This paper argues that graduate community service has the capacity to promote better access to justice and hence that steps should be taken for its introduction in some form. Community service and means for law graduates to perform this as a necessary part of vocational training before entering the legal profession are provided for in section 29 of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (LPA). But despite parts of the Act being operative, community service is neither in operation nor do regulations yet exist for its implementation. The specific vocational training element(s) for law graduates is worthy of separate study and is not the focus of this paper. Such a separate study would include opportunity creation - such as gaining the necessary practical experience and the establishment of employment opportunities - and training challenges for graduates during community service. In the pre-LPA era it would have been necessary to focus more on whether community service for law graduates should be included in legislation or not as part of graduates' vocational training and as a key component of free legal service delivery. Some such arguments are alluded to as community service has yet to be implemented and its implementation is not a fait accompli. But because it is now included in the LPA as a legal aid service delivery possibility, this study instead focusses on the need for the effective and appropriate implementation and operation of community service to turn the requirements and encouraging promise of the LPA on community service into reality. The paper explores issues such as the necessary and appropriate supervision and placement of law graduates completing community service. The research very briefly touches on whether community service would best be compulsory for graduates as part of their vocational training or merely one possible route towards admission to the legal profession. Lessons are sought for legal community service in South Africa from existing medical post-study community service schemes as to the role which such schemes have played in expanded service provision and impediments experienced in reaching such goals. These lessons are applied to proposals for the implementation and operation of law graduate community service. This study considers how community service could and should be a key component of a multi-faceted and co-ordinated approach to expand and improve free legal services for the indigent in civil matters in South Africa with its gross inequality, unemployment and poverty. For this goal to be realised, there must be mechanisms for its effective roll-out and operation.       

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.

scholarly journals Pro Bono in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thabang Pooe ◽  
Alice Brown ◽  
Jonathan Klaaren
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
The South ◽  
Legal Representation ◽  
Civic Duty ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
African Context

This chapter explores issues related to the state of pro bono legal services and access to justice in South Africa. As is made clear in this book, what is referred to as “pro bono” comes from the Latin pro bono publico, meaning “for the public good.” It describes legal work undertaken by legal practitioners without remuneration or at significantly below-market rates as a public service for individuals or organizations who cannot afford to pay. In the South African context, the concept of pro bono must be understood alongside specific constitutional provisions as well as against the structure of the legal profession. In our view, increasing access to justice for the poor, marginalized, and indigent individuals and communities should be seen by members of the South African legal community as an essential component to fulfilling not only their civic duty but also their constitutional obligations. Our understanding of pro bono includes aspirations of access to justice with the legal profession playing a part in its realization. This can only be made real for all people living in South Africa if they have access to legal representation, and much of the private legal profession understands and acknowledges that it has anobligation in this regard. Pro bono practice is therefore a necessary institution for addressing access to justice. It is not, however, sufficient. Pro bono practice must be augmented by the work of paralegals and extended to the particular South African vision of community service, which itself does aspire to implement and achieve access to justice.

scholarly journals Advocacy as a tool for the realization of the fundamental right of a person to professional legal assistance

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 240-243
Author(s):  
P. Badzeliuk
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
The Right ◽  
Legal Entities

This article is devoted to the study of the implementation of the fundamental right of a person to professional legal assistance through the vectors of influence of the bar, the role of the human rights institution in the mechanism of such a right and its place in public life.An effective justice system provides not only an independent and impartial judiciary, but also an independent legal profession. Lawyers play an important role in ensuring access to justice. They facilitate the interaction between individuals and legal entities and the judiciary by providing legal advice to their clients and presenting them to the courts. Without the assistance of a lawyer, the right to a fair trial and the right to an effective remedy would be irrevocably violated.Thus, the bar in the mechanism of protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is one of the means of self-limitation of state power through the creation and active functioning of an independent human rights institution, which is an active subject in the process of fundamental rights. The main constitutional function of the state is to implement and protect the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, and the constitutional and legal status of the legal profession allows it to actively ensure the rights of civil society as a whole and not just the individual. Effectively implement the human rights function of the state by ensuring proper interaction between the authorities and civil society, while being an active participant in the law enforcement mechanism and occupying an independent place in the justice system.Thus, the activities of lawyers are a complex manifestation of both state and public interest. After all, it is through advocacy and thanks to it that the rule of law realizes the possibility of ensuring the rights and freedoms of its citizens. Advocacy, on the one hand, has a constitutionally defined state character, and on the other hand, lawyers should be as independent as possible from the state in order to effectively protect citizens and legal entities from administrative arbitrariness. Thus, the bar is a unique legal phenomenon that performs a state (public-law) function, while remaining an independent, non-governmental self-governing institution.

scholarly journals "Our roots began in (South) Africa": Modelling law clinics to maximise social justice ends

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Donald Nicolson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

<p align="JUSTIFY">This article explores the ways in which law clinics can be organised to maximise their impact on social justice in South Africa. Such impact can be both direct in the form of the actual legal services offered to those in need or indirect in the form of encouraging law clinic students to commit to assisting those most in need of legal service after they graduate either through career choice or other forms of assistance. The article develops a decision-making matrix for clinic design around two dimensions, each with a number of variables. The first, "organizational" dimension relates to the way clinics are organised and run, and involves choices about whether: (1) clinics emphasise social justice or student learning; (2) student participation attracts academic credit or is extra-curricular; (3) participation is compulsory or optional; (4) clinics are managed and run by staff or students; and (5) there is one "omnibus" clinic structure covering all clinic activities or a "cluster" of discrete clinics conducting different activities. The second, "activities" dimensions involves choices about whether services are: (1) specialist or generalist; (2) exclusively legal or "<span lang="IT">holistic</span><span lang="EN">"; (3) provided only by students or qualified legal professionals; (4) located in community neighbourhoods or on campus; (5) provided by students working "in-house" in a university clinic or in external placements; (6) designed to benefit the wider community rather than just the individuals directly served; and (7) designed to remedy existing problems or educate the public on their legal rights and duties. </span></p><p align="JUSTIFY">While not intending to set out a blueprint for existing law clinics, the article argues that, if South African are motivated to enhance their impact on social justice and level of community engagement, they can learn much from the first law clinic to be established in South Africa, at the University of Cape Town, which was entirely student-run, optional and solely focused on ensuring access to justice rather than educating students. Drawing on his experience in adapting this model for use in Scotland, the author looks at the advantages of combining the volunteerist and student owned nature of this clinic with some formal teaching and staff involvement to maximize both the direct and indirect impact of clinics on social justice.</p>

Toward Improved Legal Service Delivery: A Look at Four Mechanisms

1979 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barlow F. Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Private Practitioners ◽  
Referral Service ◽  
Specialty Certification ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Do So

A legal service delivery system intended to facilitate the providing of services by private practitioners should, to be complete, include among its functions three that are of special importance. First, it should diagnose legal problems. Second, it should make available to a person with a legal problem the information needed for informed selection of a lawyer. And third, it should, when necessary, help the prospective client to make the initial contact with a lawyer. Lawyer advertising, specialty certification, lawyer directories, and lawyer referral services perform some of these functions, but no one mechanism performs all three adequately. A system combining the lawyer directory with an expanded lawyer referral service might do so and thus might be a more complete answer to the problem of delivery of legal services.

Legal Service Plans: A Typology

1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-509
Author(s):  
Werner Pfennigstorf ◽  
Spencer L. Kimball
Keyword(s):  
Legal Profession ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
Business Enterprises ◽  
Optimal Efficiency

Serious questions have been raised of late both within and outside the legal profession about the adequacy of the bar's organization for the delivery of legal services. It is thought that business enterprises and affluent individuals get the service they need-although perhaps at excessive cost and with less than optimal efficiency-but that most of the population are underserved and have serious difficulty in finding legal assistance at all or at an affordable cost.

scholarly journals The Legal Academy’s Engagements with Lawtech: Technology Narratives and Archetypes as Drivers of Change

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
Kate Galloway ◽  
Julian Webb ◽  
Francesca Bartlett ◽  
John Flood ◽  
Lisa Webley
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Law

This article argues that legal education is currently grappling with three narratives of technology’s role in either augmenting, disrupting or ending the current legal services environment. It identifies each of these narratives within features of curriculum design that respond to legal professional archetypes of how lawyers react to lawtech. In tracing how these influential narratives and associated archetypes feature in the law curriculum, the article maps the evolving intersection of lawtech, the legal profession and legal services delivery in legal education. It concludes by proffering the additional narrative of ‘adaptive professionalism’, which emphasises the complex and contextual nature of the legal profession, and therefore provides a more coherent direction for adaptation of the law curriculum. Through this more nuanced and grounded approach, it is suggested that law schools might equip law graduates to embrace technological developments while holding on to essential notions of ethical conduct, access to justice and the rule of law.

scholarly journals THE LAW SOCIETY OF UPPER CANADA AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE: LESSONS FROM LAWYER-LICENSING REFORM

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 121 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wiseman
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Upper Canada ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Training

The process for licensing new lawyers in Ontario is in the midst of significant change following the Law Society of Upper Canada’s approval of a recommendation by it’s Articling Task Force to introduce of a 3-year pilot project that will provide a program of practical legal training as an alternative to articling.  This article describes and critically analyzes these changes and the process that led to them in relation to three aspects of access to justice: access to the legal profession, access to legal services, and access to legal governance.  The analysis reveals numerous shortcomings that provide lessons that could be applied to the proposal for evaluating the pilot project as well as to the Law Society’s recently announced initiative to overhaul its institutional approach to access to justice. Le processus d’accès à la profession qui s’applique aux nouveaux avocats en Ontario fait actuellement l’objet de changements importants. Le Barreau du Haut-Canada a approuvé un projet pilote de trois ans recommandé par son Groupe de travail sur le stage, dans le cadre duquel il sera possible de suivre un programme de pratique du droit plutôt que de faire un stage. Le présent article décrit et analyse de façon critique ces changements – ainsi que le processus ayant mené aux changements – par rapport à trois aspects de l’accès à la justice : l’accès à la profession juridique, l’accès aux services juridiques et l’accès à la gouvernance juridique. L’analyse fait ressortir de nombreuses lacunes qui pourraient servir de leçons à appliquer à la proposition d’évaluation du projet pilote ainsi qu’à l’initiative récemment annoncée du Barreau visant à réviser son approche institutionnelle à l’accès à la justice.

scholarly journals 2002: A Justice Odyssey

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Kim Economides
Keyword(s):  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Ethics

Professor Economides, 2002 Chapman Tripp visiting fellow, overviews research on the supply side of the access to justice equation. Economides argues that the justice equation is based on the nature of supply and demand for legal services and the nature of the claim that clients wish to bring to a legal forum. However, the access to justice theme is moved beyond the supply side and into questions regarding the quality of the access provided suggesting that there is a need to explore the understandings of justice held by members of the legal profession and legal ethics, and the role that law schools and legal education have in formulating these.

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