Help where it's needed

The publicity surrounding the LawWorks pro bono launch should not distract us from the need of continued support for projects that have already been established for many years. Nor, of course, would LawWorks wish it to be otherwise.

In these times of financial stringency, no such organisation can take its continued existence into the next financial year for granted – even those with a claim to be the best known. Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) may have already celebrated its 70th birthday, but as I discovered on a recent visit, as at early December its Edinburgh operation was still waiting to hear what will be forthcoming from its main funders after this March.

“To many people that will be quite surprising,” observes Craig Cathcart, a trustee and director of the local bureau, “because people think Citizens Advice has always been there: it’s been a feature of local communities and high streets since the Second World War. There’s been an assumption that we’re funded by some pot of money and that’s not the case. We’ve benefited from tremendous generosity from some organisations and individuals, but it’s been tough and it will continue to be tough. It really is a question of survival for ourselves and for many other bureaux around the UK.”

CAS’s offices have to be considered individually, as each bureau (or a cluster of local bureaux, as in Edinburgh) is an independent charitable body, with its own funding arrangements, operating under the umbrella of CAS. Although most are funded predominantly by local authorities, in the capital that amounts to about 40 per cent of core funding, the balance coming from businesses, trusts and foundations, and project management fees.

The national body’s role is essentially to provide the quality assurance to allow the local bureaux to operate under the CAS banner, through training support and a three-yearly audit of advice provision to maintain quality.

Bellwether body

Funding or no, the various CABx are unlikely to run out of things to do. “I see us very much as a weather vane for what’s going on in society,” says Cathcart. “The recession and its consequences have brought an awful lot more people to our doors. We’ve had a 25 per cent increase in business since the start of the credit crunch, and the profile of those coming to see us and the nature of their problems reflect the social and economic problems that people are facing outside. We’ve seen a vast increase in people seeking financial and debt advice, but also an increase in people seeking employment advice, for example, as employment has become more precarious. So we very much reflect what’s going on out there and that’s seen very volubly in our statistics.”

Moira Tasker, his chief executive, adds: “We don’t think we’ve yet seen the full extent of job losses in Edinburgh, either in the public sector or the financial services sector. There’s also been a change in the demographic profile of our clients, so we’re seeing quite a lot of sole traders and small business owners who perhaps are ancillary to large companies; and quite a few professionals – architects, developers, anyone connected with industries that have been affected by the recession.”

On the spot

In making itself available to those in need, Citizens Advice does not confine itself to its own offices. The Edinburgh branch has five of these but a further 15 outreach projects run in conjunction with various organisations, five of them housing associations (for money advice to tenants), and eight in GP surgeries around Edinburgh.

Tasker explains: “It was found that for the NHS it can save money in healthcare terms if people can address their stress levels and their problems. And if somebody is diagnosed with a serious illness, that might have an impact not just on their employment but their family lives, their housing, anything. They’ve been very successful projects; they’ve been running for a long time. We also have referral mechanisms with groups such as the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre – we deal with the more straightforward immigration advice, and we can refer the more complex cases on to them.”

Solicitors may not appreciate that the in-court adviser project and the in-court mediation project, based in the sheriff court, are also operated by CAS, working with the Scottish Legal Aid Board. “They’re very busy and on the measures we’ve put in, we think very successful,” says Cathcart. “The mediation service for example takes people from being at loggerheads and has a resolution rate of 90 per cent.”

Both Tasker and Cathcart believe that ignorance and misperceptions continue to put barriers between many people and their rights, quite apart from the financial obstacles. “We have one of the strongest brands in the voluntary sector: people know the CAB is there to offer advice,” Tasker comments. “We have more clients than we could possibly help, but I think the concern is wider education among the public as to what a lawyer can do for you. There is still a perception that this will be very costly, and perhaps alternative ways, even such things as the in-court mediation service can save all parties a lot of money, so I think that while we’re very visible, pro bono legal work in Scotland isn’t as visible as it could be.”

Cathcart believes that despite the service’s fairly good network in Edinburgh, there remains a vast untapped need for advice. “We’ve got some demographic analysis of the users of our bureaux, and the pattern is very much that it’s people who are based in those areas who use a local bureau. Now either that’s because we are sourced by Providence at the areas of greatest need, or just because wherever you put a CAB there is a huge unmet need for advice and we then meet that. One of the projects we’re hoping to put in place in the near future is to do some research which would find out whether there are similar areas of unmet demand in areas of the community where we don’t have bureaux. We suspect we could infer an answer from what we know so far, but we want to really get the science on that.”

Solicitor support

As regards current levels of support from the legal profession, the Edinburgh bureaux are well placed for practical help. Local solicitors have been providing advice support for over 30 years, with more than 30 volunteers currently staffing four pro bono legal advice clinics. “They operate by internal referral,” Tasker explains. “If we have a client coming to us with a problem and they’ve already seen a generalist adviser, and it’s judged that we need a solicitor here, then they get referred for an appointment at our pro bono clinic. I asked some of the solicitors recently how they felt their input helped, and as well as getting phenomenal results for clients, they felt that their presence as a solicitor gave their clients confidence, that they were right to pursue the matter. Often it wasn’t the solicitor doing so much work, it was really empowering the client, and we would say that’s the ethos of Citizens Advice – it’s not to solve people’s problems for them, it’s to empower them so they’re aware of their rights and their responsibilities, to help them solve their problems. Our pro bono legal clinics are an important part of that.”

While “tremendously grateful” for the support received, Cathcart adds that in an ideal world the next step would be for the solicitors “to adopt more of a sort of casework basis: rather than making one or two interventions in a case, to see it through to a conclusion including if necessary pro bono appearances in court or at a tribunal”. That would provide more complete support for the harder cases that are not resolved by correspondence.

What, then, would the CABx most like by way of additional support from the profession – financial support, or more volunteer assistance, or both? “Financial support is the biggie, but all of the above,” Tasker responds. “We always welcome approaches by law firms, they can speak to us about volunteering opportunities, but we need cash too to be here, to offer these. We’re well resourced in terms of support from solicitors but there are always areas, particularly certain specialist areas where we need more help, such as employment, at the moment.”

But even conveyancers have a role to play: Cathcart explains that advice is quite regularly sought, certainly in Edinburgh, in relation to burdens or other title problems, or neighbour disputes.

Complementary programmes

One area where CAS can offer benefits in return is as a means for newer solicitors – or indeed those still seeking to qualify: see panel for an example – to come and build up client experience. “That can be formalised as part of their CPD record,” says Tasker, “and I think the wider CAB service is looking at formalising that with vocational qualifications as well.” Cathcart adds: “We hope to bring forward a programme of specialised induction for solicitor volunteers so that everybody has a better perspective of the wider organisation and everyone receives the same level of support, as our generalist advisers do as well.”

So what of the LawWorks move into Scotland – how do they see it impacting? “In Edinburgh, we’re fairly well covered, but in other parts of Scotland there’s a real need for more pro bono work,” Tasker replies. “Absolutely,” Cathcart agrees. “Because we’ve got wonderful historical links with the legal profession, we have established on the ground a very similar service to what the LawWorks model is as I understand it, and that’s fantastic. But you don’t have to go too far beyond Edinburgh to find there are no similar things. Because we’re the capital and have the supreme courts here and so on, we have more than our fair share of lawyers, and other parts of the country aren’t as fortunate.”

Contacts

• Edinburgh website: www.citizensadviceedinburgh.org.uk
• e: moira.tasker@caed.org.uk
• Across Scotland, the CAS website www.cas.org.uk acts as a portal.

A law graduate’s perspective

I graduated LLB (Honours) from the University of Strathclyde in 2008 on the graduate entrance course, and from the University of Stirling in 2009 with the Diploma in Legal Practice. I had been unable to secure a legal traineeship on graduation and therefore applied to work at Citizens Advice. I was aware of the type of work that Citizens Advice did and I knew I would gain good practical experience and use what academic knowledge I had. I contacted Citizens Advice online at www.cas.org.uk where I expressed my interest to work as a generalist adviser.

I work in two bureaux on a full time and voluntary basis, working one day in Denny & Dunipace bureau where my main role is a generalist adviser, and the other four at Clackmannanshire bureau where I am the heritable court representative, assisting clients with rent arrears, and a generalist adviser and benefit appeals tribunal representative.

I also work as a bureau tutor and trainee adviser mentor across both bureaux, and am a lay representative on the Citizens Advice Scotland Legal Services Group. This is a group set up to look at the legal services provided by CABx and discuss changes in legislation, barriers and access to justice that our clients face, and court and tribunal representation among other current and relevant topics. The Group is chaired by Professor Alan Paterson of Strathclyde University, and includes members of various professional bodies (SLAB, Law Society of Scotland, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Faculty of Advocates, Consumer Focus), as well as CAB representatives.

Learning in the role

The majority of clients at Clackmannanshire Bureau who require assistance with their rent arrears, present once they have been served with a summary cause summons, mostly by the local council but also by social landlords. My role is to establish with the client why they got into rent arrears, whether there are any benefits they should be claiming, including possible backdates to reduce their arrears, whether the client has any children who live in the property, whether they have any disabilities, and what their financial position is. I represent clients who are unable to represent themselves. I also work very closely with the local council’s legal services team and the local solicitors. Building excellent working relationships is vital to allow negotiations and joint motions to be made.

I am also interested in employment law and deal with many enquiries relating to dismissal (wrongful and constructive), discrimination, illegal deductions from wages, and holiday and pay entitlements.

As a law graduate seeking a legal traineeship, Citizens Advice has provided me with a firm base for learning, progressing, networking, helping clients, meeting new people and building personal and professional relationships. I have attended many training courses including employment rights, consumer issues and immigration.

The only regret I have about Citizens Advice is that I did not volunteer earlier!