‘State disregard’ for access to justice during recession

There was a “State disregard” for access to justice during the recession when it came to granting access to legal aid, according to a new report.

The report, entitled ‘Accessing Justice in Hard Times’ by the Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac), claimed issues that existed before the recession regarding shortcomings in the civil legal aid scheme were made worse by the economic crash.

According to the report: “In Ireland, while some efforts were made to mitigate against the negative impact of the economic crisis, the regressive nature of most of the changes to the state-funded civil legal aid scheme underlined the state disregard for the right to equal access to justice.”