Let the children come

Flicking through the past few issues of the Journal, readers have been inundated by articles relating to access to justice. And rightly so. It is, of course, vital that the legal profession engages in the debate about its own future and, as the President said in the April edition, continues to regard access to justice as one of the core principles that govern the profession.

Some of the issues identified in relation to delivery of service are:

• That from a client’s or consumer’s point of view, there are barriers to accessing justice, whether real or perceived. For example, consulting a lawyer is believed to be very costly.

• The issues surrounding delivery of publicly funded legal advice and representation.

• The viability of private law firms delivering legal services, particularly in certain fields of law.

In this climate of discussion about the future, it might be of interest to draw attention to a new service recently launched which is aimed at addressing unmet legal need.

cl@n gathering

Community Law Advice Network, known as cl@n, has just begun its service to make the law more accessible to those in need. cl@n aims to make the law more easily available to all by providing legal advice and representation to people at a place suitable to them, at the time that they need it and irrespective of their ability to pay. Its initial focus is in relation to children and young people.

This innovative and exciting initiative has now launched for children and young people within Edinburgh and the Lothians. cl@n childlaw aims to reach out to particularly vulnerable children and young people, and to provide them with any legal help that they require. Despite a growing awareness of children’s rights and an increasing acknowledgment that children’s voices should be heard, if a legal issue arises for a child it can be difficult for that child to access legal help. This is partly due to the issues already identified, and partly because children and young people in particular require assistance to access the law.

Making rights a reality

Research demonstrates, and it comes as no surprise, that children and young people generally prefer to receive face-to-face advice in a familiar environment. In England and Wales, youth access law centre projects are being piloted to address this, but no such steps are being taken in Scotland. The aim of cl@n childlaw is, therefore, to link with professionals working with children, help identify legal need where necessary, and to offer legal help in a place and in a way that suits the child, resulting in the addressing of otherwise unmet legal need. There is currently no specialist, not-for-profit, face-to-face legal service being provided in Scotland carrying out representation principally for children.

cl@n childlaw works with first tier advice providers, children’s rights officers, children’s advocates, and others in both the statutory and voluntary sector to identify children who may benefit from legal advice, and then meets with them in a place where the child feels comfortable. This gives practical effect to article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, enabling children to participate fully in decision making processes which affect them, and allowing their views to be heard. Areas of work include looked-after and accommodated children, adoption, children’s hearings, education, parental rights and responsibilities, age of legal capacity, asylum children, and contact and residence. cl@n childlaw also delivers training on aspects of child law, aiming to raise awareness of children’s rights and responsibilities.

The cl@n system

cl@n is a registered charity, a law centre and a company limited by guarantee. It does not have an office. It has two employees, one of whom is a non-practising advocate, employed to provide advocacy services. The other is a practising solicitor with experience in private practice, in a law centre and as a reporter to the children’s hearings. Sheriff Gail Patrick is cl@n’s patron. The registered office is Anderson Strathern and training venues have been provided by Simpson & Marwick. cl@n has been given startup funding by the Scottish Government, and has also applied to various trust funds for support. It has also been in discussion with several law firms in relation to possible ways in which assistance could be provided as part of their corporate social responsibility agenda, including the provision of pro bono legal services.

This is simply one model of reaching out to people who would otherwise have found it difficult to obtain the legal help that they require. There are of course many more models in operation, and several others waiting to be devised. At this time of impending change and during this period of reflection, we have a golden opportunity to reconsider traditional models of legal service delivery in a way that affirms one of the core principles of our profession.