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9-12C
Breaking stories
Record numbers seek free legal advice
By Noel Baker
A record number of enquiries were received by Free Legal Advice Centres last year, due mainly to a 69% increase in debt and credit matters.
Latest figures show FLAC provided basic legal information to 12,923 telephone callers and had 13,362 personal visits to its advice centres around the country.They represent a 39% increase in phone calls and 21.7% rise in visits on 2010.
Both figures are the highest ever for the service which has operated since the early 1970s.
The disclosures are contained in its annual report 2011 which was launched yesterday by Justice Minister Alan Shatter, who, in the 1970s, was a volunteer for FLAC and a former chairperson of the organisation.
The surge in calls and contacts made by citizens to the centres in recent years is in part linked to the recession, with a total of 83,416 queries received since the beginning of 2008.
Debt queries to the telephone line have increased nine-fold since 2008, with 1,538 lodged last year, while debt inquiries by visitors to FLAC centres have more than tripled in the period.
Family law issues are still the biggest single reason for both calls to and contacts with FLAC, but credit, debt and employment issues are increasing. Director general Noeline Blackwell said issues of personal debt and insolvency were among those driving the increase in the number of people seeking legal help, and responsible for 12% of all calls.
Since 2008, FLAC has assisted almost 6,000 people with a debt-related query, a statistic described by FLAC chairman Peter Ward as “quite stark and quite startling”.
Yesterday Mr Shatter said the Government’s Personal Insolvency Bill will be published by the end of the month, adding he hoped it would encourage banks and lending institutions to “engage constructively” with debtors, particularly those who are not in a position to pay back what they owe.
He said the bill would “radically transform our approach to deal with the very significant issues of over-indebtedness which many of our fellow citizens are experiencing” and contain mechanisms for non-judicial debt resolution.
Ms Blackwell said the bill was one element needed to tackle issues of indebtedness which, she noted, needed a “holistic and comprehensive debt settlement system which takes cases out of the courts”.
There was a 51% rise in calls to FLAC about social welfare. Mr Shatter said that he wanted greater transparency in the social welfare appeals system.
There was also a rise in contacts made related to civil legal aid and the report states that the waiting time for a first appointment with a solicitor in a Legal Aid Board law centre is now 10 months on average. By the end of 2011, the waiting list had grown to 4,781.
The report shows 18% of callers to FLAC centres last year were referred to the Legal Aid Board.
* www.flac.ie
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