Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 - Essay Example

According to JSTOR (1950), this approach has been rendered urgent by the fall in value of money, which has made the present financial limits of the Poor Person's Procedure totally inadequate, and the satisfactory arrangements for legal advice for the forces during the late war, have focused attention on the need for similar arrangements for civilians. (p. 81-87) Legal aid or legal help is the act of providing initial assistance and advice to any legal problem. The idea is that the state meets the cost of the case.

Legal aid and advice is an initiative designed to enable the people of England who would not normally have access to the legal services the rare opportunity to bring a case into a court of law. According to Article 6 of Human Rights, everybody should be given a fair public hearing while determining his obligations and civil rights. This should be done by an impartial and independent tribunal which is set up by law. The judgment should also be pronounced through the press to the public. Most important point mentioned here is that everyone is innocent until he is proven guilty.

The following rights are also available to anyone that is charged with a criminal offense; the first right is that, the person should be informed on time in a language that he can speak the type and cause of crime that he is accused of. The second point is that he should be given enough time to prepare for his defense. Thirdly, he should be allowed to defend himself in person or through legal assistance and to be given legal assistance for free when he is not able to afford it. The fourth right is that, he should be allowed to examine witnesses against him.

The last right in this article is that, he should have free assistance of an interpreter in times when he cannot speak a language. A report by one Rushcliffe of 1949 hinted that equal opportunity of right to representation in a court of law was a fundamental instrument to a just society. Rushcliffe in his 1945 report did recommend the establishment for the first time of legal aid scheme in the Legal Aid and Legal Advice Act 1949. Until 1970, legal aid was just confined to civil disputes (divorce and matrimonial problems).

Lord Chancellor in 1970 called for auxiliary legal services through tribunals. The responsibility of legal aid then lay with the Law Society. In 1888, a new system was mooted and it brought legal aid services under the control of central government, which then established the Legal Aid Board. This board, unlike the previous one, acquired a new role and responsibility. For instance, the Legal Aid Board was responsible for the financing of all state paid legal work. However still the poor could not access legal services and obtain justice and something had to be done to address their problems.

In 1999, the Access to Justice Act did pass in parliament and it made a fundamental move with respect to justice accessibility by the less fortunate in the society. The Access to Justice Act was quite radical in its proposals. It proposed immediate abolishment of the defunct Legal Aid Board and instead established an independent body the Legal Service Commission (LSC) under the Ministry of Justice and did redraw the entire mode of funding and controlling the legal aid. LSC was provided with a lot of powers to enable it