Naomi Long acknowledges perception of legal aid as ‘wealthy people making money’

NAOMI Extended has said there is a challenge in presenting lawful support as aspect of the welfare system as opposed to the common perception of “wealthy men and women generating cash”.

The justice minister reported she won’t think the bleak situation introduced by the legal occupation is “rather as stark as has been painted” but conceded that the effects of funds cuts “would certainly result in closure of a sizeable amount of firms”.

In an interview with Irish Legal Information, Mrs Extended responded to promises by the Law Culture and the Bar Council that cuts in her department’s expending increased the likelihood of “legal help deserts” in cities across the north.

The Alliance chief beforehand warned that a proposed 2 for every cent reduction in Division of Justice shelling out, as set out in Stormont’s three-calendar year draft price range, would effects on the full legal justice program, including policing.

Reps of the legal career have warned that the cuts, which aim to see resources diverted to overall health, will “undermine entry to justice”.

“The current draft price range, as it has been left, was truly insufficient, not just in terms of lawful assist but right across the justice sector,” Mrs Prolonged stated.

“While I recognize that we are all attempting to make finishes fulfill in a tricky financial settlement, there is a specified level of funding that is essential for justice to be capable to satisfy its statutory functions. The quantity that was set aside in the budget for justice was not adequate to do that.”

Mrs Lengthy stated her section had undertaken its personal analysis of the budget’s implications “in terms of how numerous towns and so on would be affected”.

“I will not imagine the image is really as stark as has been painted in terms of accessibility, but it would absolutely end result in closure of a important number of firms,” she stated.

“In lots of rural communities, the associations amongst solicitors’ firms and their customers can go back again generations, so it really is not merely that you just go to a distinct solicitor – generally people have worked with a particular solicitors’ business for numerous, a lot of several years and have robust ties. The loss of that enterprise to the city or the village would be a major blow to the local community.”

The minister argued that a single way to create support for legal aid would be by presenting it in a different way.

“There is a tendency for men and women to concentrate on the procedures and the barristers who profit from legal help, and see this basically as wealthy people building revenue out of the method,” she stated.

“Individuals drop sight of the point that those truly in receipt of legal help are the purchasers. With no that lawful support, these are people who would not be able to access the justice procedure for the reason that they can’t find the money for it. For me, the lawful support system is component and parcel of our welfare technique.”

Mrs Prolonged reported she was keen to avoid “a problem the place we’re in conflict” with the legal profession.

“The previous time we had strike action in this article, we ended up in a predicament where we had a backlog of about three months of operate, which took above two many years to obvious,” she said.

“Offered that we are currently attempting to apparent the backlogs from Covid, any form of industrial action at this issue in time could have *catastrophic results on that recovery.”