TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18927, 22 April 1933, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Legal Aid for the Poor. From the previous reports of the British Law Society on the working of the Boor Persons Procedure it was clear that this voluntary and often onerous work had become a definite part of the British legal system. Its object is to ensui’c that poverty shall be no bar to justice. This year’s report, the seventh of the series, gives ample proof of the continued success of the scheme. There is again a rise in the figures; throughout the country 5577 applications were dealt with in 1931, compared with 5013 in 1930, while last year in London alone Poor Person litigants recovered £17,000. That the spirit and not merely the letter of the scheme is followed is evident from a perusal of the various -reports, which show the wide interest taken in it, the careful consideration of applications so that only deserving cases arc helped, and the trouble involved over matters of evidence and documents. The experience gained has caused several provincial committees to point out the desirability of conferring divorce jurisdiction on County Courts, which would reduce legal costs and travelling expenses, and the Council of the Law ociety have themselves urged that this change should he made. But the problem really belongs to the reorganisation of the present judicial system. Schemes have now been put into operation to protect hospital patients injured in street ac* louts from the unwelcome activities of ambulance-chasing “runners” before the patients have had an opportunity of getting into touch with the local Poor Persons Committee or their own solicitors —a happy innovation. The report also disc'usscs the regulations that now render it impossible to obtain from the police statements made to them by witnesses of a street accident. The present practice, though there are reasons for it, obviously deprives committees of material which would lie valuable in deciding whether there is a prima facie case to justify the grant of legal aid.