Pro Bono in the English Legal System - Essay Example

For instance, in accordance with German law in case a litigant is unable to pay for juridical costs, he/she may appeal for free legal assistance. According to German law inability to represent the case in the court goes against public interests. In order to get free legal assistance a stated claim must be well grounded and perspective for win. Free legal aid in England and Wales is presented by a long set system. Lawyers representing clients without a fee are said to be working pro bono publico.

According to Glossary of Labour and Legal Terminology Pro Bono Publico from Latin means for the public good 1. If to consider the term "pro bono" in an England and Wales context it should be pointed out that pro bono activity presuppose a level of organisational commitment beyond the incidental. In respect that we may define pro bono legal work as "legal advice or representation provided by layers on an organised basis to individuals and community groups who can not afford to pay for that advice or representation and where no public funding is available"2.

It should be mentioned that pro bono legal work has a very significant purpose. We should clearly realize that pro bono is not just a kind of charity activities or some substitute for public funding. According to Attorney General,"pro bono is a complement to a publicly funded legal service. But there will always be an unmet legal need however generous a legal aid system is - and the demands for education, schools, hospitals, doctors, nacres, public services of all sorts means that legal aid can never be funded from bottomless purse".

There is no doubt that pro bono work is a very important for every representative of legal profession, as together with practical skills it provides a lawyer with the ethos of pro bono culture. Now let us consider the biggest organisational units of pro bono legal work in England and Wales:Free Representation Unit - founded in the 70s of XX century by the initiative of a of Bar students for Legal Advice. Nowadays Free Representational Unit provides legal aid mostly in social security and employment cases by virtue of two full-time caseworkers staff and three part-time administrative staff.

Bar Pro Bono Unit - founded in 1996 as a high profile Bar initiative headed by Lord Goldsmith. The unit "tends to represent in areas where there is no public funding such as employment, criminal injuries, planning inquires, defamation, inquest, immigration, and social security case"3. Solicitors Pro Bono Group (now renamed Law Works) - has been founded as an initiative of small number of City solicitors, which mostly depend for its funding on large City firms. This group has a number of projects such as Law Works and Law Works for Community Groups, Law Works Mediation, Law Works Web, and initiatives aimed at students.

Kevin Martin, the president of Law Society, said: "Despite the headlines about fat cat lawyers, there are countless stories of solicitors doing voluntary work and giving free legal advice. We hope to raise the profile of pro bono work and dispel the myth that lawyers are only interested in making moneyIt is important to emphasise that pro bono work is in no way a substitute for a proper system of publicly funded legal services"4.Let us try to define what place pro bono legal work occupies in the legal system of England and Wales.

The sine qua non of legal system's efficiency is an