LEGAL AID.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13678, 21 August 1908, Page 7

LEGAL AID.

FOB THI-; POOH. Rather more- than a year aga, following a meeting at the Mansion House, the Central Legal Aid Society was foimed, with the object- of providing advice and assistance in legal matters poor persons who are unable to pay for them. The first annual meeting was held in July last at Lincoln's Inn Old Hall, London. when progress was reported. This has been, as' might be supposed, more in the direction of organising the work which ihe society hopes to undertake than in actual assistance to litigants. A rota, of barristers and solicitors who are willing to aci. without fe? for poor persons has been siarted, and representations have been made to the Lord Chancellor concerning amendments of the procedure in "forma pauperis, which it rs hoped will receive favourable consideraiton. At pie.-ent the council is engaged in organising an appeal for assistance in the way of membership on the part- of the general public. The Marquis of Salisbury, who has accepted the post of president of the society, said that there had been continuous effort tharoughouc the long periods of English history to provide legal assistance for the poor, and on the whole these efforts had failed lamentably. The Poor Prisoners' Defence Act. in which he had taken a great inierest at- the time of its passing, was undoubtedly conceived in Hie spirit in which the society was working, hut he was fold that it- was not used io anything like the extent if might be. In the main he believed ihaf this necessary legal aid to the poor was to be achieved by personal and voluntary exertion. No one could have watched the recent experience of British criminal law wichnu; having received, he would not- say an adverse impression, but one which had no; been conveyed before—that the certaintv of the justice of a verdict was not.

so assured as many of them had thought: and if that was so'in 1 -causes celebres in .which all the machinery and safeguards of flie law were employed, what might be happening. every day. in. small criminal cases of which nothing appeared in the newspapers ? As to civil cases, his belief was thai where the poor man was wrong, in-, ninetynine cases out of a. hundred he never came before the .Court, and where -lie was not in the position of plaintiff but was threatened by an action, he would accept, almost everything, however ■ unjust, which his adversary .might impose upon him, in order to escape litigation.

It was noi only in the actual -trial that legal assistance was effective-or useful, probably the advice and guidance which lawyers could give to the poor man when he was threatened - with Filiation would do a most valuable work, whether the criminal or the civil law was in question. It could not be 100 widely known that the society would do nothing to encourage litigation, for ,-verv case would be carefully considered, nntl only out of pocket expenses would be paid to solicitors who undertook the oases.