This article is from page 4 of the 2013-07-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
FREE Legal Aid Centres (FLAC) in Clare reported a marked decrease in the number of people requiring free legal assistance with financial matters.
According to the legal rights group’s annual report for 2012 there has been more than a 49 per cent drop in legal enquiries relating to credit and debit issues in Clare on the previous year.
The human rights organisation, which promotes equal access to justice and has a base at the Citizen Information Offices in Ennis, Kilrush and Shannon, also reported that the majority of its work for a second year in succession is in the area of family law.
As many as 36.9 per cent of the calls to the FLAC in Clare related to family issues, making up 167 of the 445 enquiries – the same number as last year.
There was a 26 per cent drop in the number of people requiring employment legal advice, even though it made up 11.2 per cent of all enquiries.
There was also a significant drop 28 per cent – recorded in the number of people with consumer law ques- tions, with a 15.5 per cent drop in property and land questions and a 16.7 per cent drop in immigration and refuge calls – a drop of six calls to five.
In total the queries to the three centres were down 8.5 per cent on 2011, from 497 to 455 inquiries.
The number of people enquiring about negligence and personal injury had increased by 27.6 per cent in 2012 to 37, while enquiries relating to wills, succession and probate went up 25 per cent to 40.
Questions about neighbour disputes and client solicitor relations went up from 11 to 16 and three to five re- spectively.
Enquiries relating to civil matters went up 40 per cent from 15 to 21.
In a statement the FLAC said there is not only a fundamental need in Irish society for accessible legal information and advice for individuals, but also for fairer systems that allow people to access their rights across a wide range of issues.
Director general Noeline Blackwell added, “2012 was a milestone year for FLAC where, after years of campaigning to reform personal debt law, we finally saw the passage of personal insolvency legislation, its many flaws notwithstanding.”