scholarly journals Addressing Access to Justice Through New Legal Service Providers

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-579
Author(s):  
Alice Woolley ◽  
Trevor Farrow

Most informed observers of the Canadian and American legal systems accept the existence of a significant crisis in access to justice. Evidence shows growing numbers of self-represented litigants, inadequate support for legal aid, far more reported legal issues than there is access to affordable legal assistance, and costly legal services and legal processes out of reach of most middle- and low-income citizens. Bridging this “justice gap” has become the focus of modern access to justice reform efforts.

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edita Gruodytė ◽  
Stefan Kirchner

ABSTRACT In many jurisdictions middle- and low-income individuals obtain only a relatively modest share of lawyers’ services. In a society ruled by law, every person should be able to expect key principles of justice to apply. Among the most important dimensions of a right to a fair trial is the right to equal access to an attorney. After all, the attorney is not merely a commercial actor but also represents the legal system. Access to an attorney is a key step in providing justice in practice. Many states have developed programs of legal aid which aim at providing those who are in need of legal assistance but cannot afford to pay for legal services with a way to receive legal services. Scientific literature distinguishes various forms and instruments of legal aid: the court appointment of lawyers, free or low cost legal aid provided by public agencies and charitable and fraternal organizations, sometimes mixed with legal expenses insurance, contingency fee and the free services of lawyers who are serving probono publico. From the perspective of practicing attorneys, this article presents and compares existing systems of legal assistance in Lithuania and Germany, and their availability and effectiveness, in order to answer the question whether the social responsibility of attorneys and access to justice is obtained.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-513
Author(s):  
David Luban

It has been more than twenty years since the American Bar Association published its pioneering study of the legal needs of low-income Americans. The bottom lines of this study are often cited: first, that each year, half of low-income people faced legal needs, defined as “situations, events, or difficulties any member of the household faced . . . . [that] raised legal issues.” Second, 70% of the legal needs of lowincome people went unmet. Twenty years later, it appears that nothing has changed, except for the worse. For one thing, the budget of the Legal Services Corporation (“LSC”) is 40% smaller today—in constant dollars—than it was when the Legal Needs Study appeared. In fact, the LSC’s 2015 budget was 10% lower than it was just four years earlier. Today there are about 4,300 LSC-funded lawyers—about the same as in 1994, the year of the ABA’s legal needs survey. This actually improved over the intervening years, when the number of LSC-funded lawyers dropped significantly. But the number of people eligible for legal aid has grown by 11 million since 1994 to a rather staggering 61 million people today, almost a fifth of the U.S. population.


Author(s):  
Helmy Yahya Rahma Aji ◽  
Raden Muhammad Arvy Ilyasa

Indonesia as a state of the law has guaranteed the constitutional rights of each of its citizens without exception as a form of protection of human rights contained in Article 1 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution. Providing legal assistance to citizens who are unable as constitutional rights of every citizen and the State is obliged to protect the constitutional rights regarding obtaining guarantees, protections, and certainty of law that is fair and equal treatment before the law. Legal aid legally in Law Number 16 of 2011 is a legal service free of charge to legal aid recipients. The thing that becomes the basis for the provision of legal assistance by the State is because the State is responsible for providing legal assistance to disadvantaged citizens as a form of access to justice and equality before the law. The state has a role in terms of establishing regulations as the legal basis for implementing legal assistance for disadvantaged citizens. But in reality, in the development of legal aid, there are several problems between legal aid providers (advocates) and the State as a guarantor of the constitutional right to the realization of justice and equality before the law for every Indonesian citizen, including the poor.


Author(s):  
Alycia Sandra Dinar Andhini

Legal Aid is organized to help resolve legal issues faced by Legal Aid Recipients. The birth of Law No. 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid provides new hope for the poor to gain access to justice and equality before the law. This writing aims to determine the implementation of the provision of legal aid and the obstacles that influence it in its implementation because sometimes the implementation of Law Number 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid in Indonesian Courts is not optimal. This research focuses on the application of legal aid to the poor, the challenges and problems they face. The method used in this research is empirical research. This study found that in the application of legal aid in several regions in Indonesia, the main problem faced in addition to the lack of availability of accredited legal aid institutions, was also the issue of the budget provided by the state. In addition, in terms of the legal culture of the community, the implementation of legal aid is not optimal due to the understanding of the community not to have anything to do with the law so that many cases that should receive legal assistance cannot be accompanied.  


2019 ◽  
pp. 64-79
Author(s):  
Stebin Sam ◽  
Ashley Pearson

Digital technologies are revolutionising the delivery of legal services within Australia. Challenged by innovative technologies, products and processes, the legal profession has been forced to confront their technologically disrupted future and adapt to the new technological age, as both providers and clients become progressively more reliant on increasingly sophisticated digital technology. One sector that stands to reap the benefits of digital disruption is free legal service providers, such as Community Legal Centres (CLCs), whose services benefit from the extended outreach, accessibility and efficiency that digital technologies provide. As institutions that are dedicated to ensuring that vulnerable client groups have access to justice, CLCs must be cautious not to adopt digital technologies without due thought and, consequently, potentially alienate vulnerable clients. In this new technological era, it is now more crucial than ever for CLCs to ensure that clients who may lack access to technology, are digitally illiterate, or prefer face-to-face interactions, are catered for within the CLC sector. This paper addresses the use of technology by Queensland CLCs by drawing on data collected from semi-structured, qualitative interviews with 10 employees from eight different CLCs. The article asserts that Queensland CLCs preferred to adopt digital technologies that assisted with their organisational needs over client-oriented services, attempting to strike the delicate balance between technological convenience and technological inaccessibility.


Daedalus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Sandman

The Legal Services Corporation is the United States' largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. The LSC funds legal-aid programs that serve households with annual incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline. Legal-aid clients face a wide variety of civil legal problems: wrongful evictions, mortgage foreclosures, domestic violence, wage theft, child custody and child support issues, and denial of essential benefits. This vital work is badly underfunded. The shortfall between the civil legal needs of low-income Americans and the resources available to address those needs is daunting. Federal funding is necessary because support for civil legal aid varies widely from state to state. The LSC uses the “justice gap” metaphor to describe the shortfall between legal needs and legal services. Narrowing the gap is central to the LSC's mission.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
Dilshodbek Nurumov ◽  

This article discusses some scientific and theoretical issues of providing legal assistance to business entities by lawyers of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The author analyzes the views of nationaland foreign researchers and scientists regardinglegal aid, legal service and other legal categories and enters into scientific polemics with them. In particular, the author notes that today the providing legal assistance of business entities is becoming one of the main areas of advocacy, in this regard, the problems existing in the scientific doctrine are considered in detail. The author analyzes the general and distinctive aspects of the activities of lawyers and legal services in providing legal assistance to business entities and makes scientific andtheoretical conclusions


Author(s):  
Rezal Helwin Bramantara

Legal aid is a legal service provided to the beneficiaries of legal aid according to Law No. 18 of 2003 on Advocates. Considering there are still many people who do not understand that in Indonesia there is also legal aid provided by lawyers at no cost. The ineffectiveness of the application in providing legal aid in Indonesia is a legal issue that is interesting to study more in order to determine the main problems causing lack of effectiveness in the provision of legal aid in Indonesia, which will look for solutions from an idea into a formulation as optimization of legal aid in Indonesia. The issue will be seeking legal issues in the implementation of judicial assistance and formulation of how the application of legal aid may be optimized. This article reviews the development of legal aid as legal services provided by lawyers to people who are not able to freely in Indonesia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-69
Author(s):  
Diah Ratri Oktavriana ◽  
Nasiri Nasiri

This research is a normative research. One of the fulfillment of human rights is justice in equalizing the position of every citizen before the law, as stated in Article 27 paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. The right to equality before the law or what is commonly referred to as equality before the law is a principle that provides recognition and protection of human rights for every individual regardless of one's background. Therefore, it is true that Law Number 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid for People Who Are Less Capable to Guarantee Constitutional Rights of Citizens for Justice and Equality before the Law emerged. Legal aid is a legal service provided by advocates to the community seeking justice In the realm of criminal cases, the provision of legal assistance is described in Article 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code which explains that in the interests of defense, a suspect or defendant has the right to receive legal assistance from one or more legal advisers during the time and at each level of examination. The provision of legal assistance must be based on the principle of equality before the law as stated in the explanation of Law Number 8 of 1981 concerning Criminal Procedure Law. From the various analyzes that have been carried out, in the perspective of Islamic criminal law it can be concluded that the principle of equality before the law as described in Article 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code is equivalent to an order to provide legal aid which in Islamic criminal law is spelled out in Surah Al-Maidah verse 2 which states that as a fellow humans are ordered to help each other as a form of horizontal worship to fellow humans (habl minan-nas). In addition there are many more both in the Al Qur'an and the hadith of the prophet regarding the application of the principle of equality before the law.


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