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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Access to justice and advice sector issues  →  Thread

Impact on pro bono provision of cuts to advice agencies

shawn mach
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Joined: 14 April 2010

New paper from the Law Society on Affordable legal services includes -

Pro bono legal services cannot cover the gap left behind by the legal aid cuts ...

Pro bono work ... depends on there being good infrastructure within which it can be delivered. This is often provided through Law Centres and Citizens Advice Bureaux. As a result of the cuts to legal aid and local authority funding, these organisations have had to reduce the amount of work they do providing this infrastructure. In many areas there has seen the double impact of reductions in the amount of pro bono work available alongside the legal aid cuts.

Ultimately, pro bono provision cannot exist in a vacuum. It needs to have a space to operate in, and community partners to collaborate with, in order to provide a meaningful service. If advice agencies continue to be cut, then there will inevitably be a decline, not a growth, of pro bono provision.

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/policy-campaigns/campaigns/access-to-justice/affordable-legal-services/
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/Policy-campaigns/Campaigns/Access-to-justice/documents/A-proper-supported-role-for-free-legal-advice-May-2015/