 Family Misfortunes ( 150kb) - The challenges facing publicly funded family advice
Introduction
1. This paper on publicly funded legal service for family problems is one of a series produced by Citizens Advice to contribute to the debate currently taking place on the future of the Community Legal Service, and publicly funded legal advice more generally. The paper reviews the background to the debate, sets out the extent of the problem, assesses the human cost of advice deserts, and considers the consequences of inaction. Finally, it suggests a number of questions to be considered during the next stage of the debate. The paper examines the following topics:
- The background to the Community Legal Service
- The extent of the need for advice
- Advice deserts - the regional picture
- The human cost of advice deserts
- The providers' perspectives
- Advice provision and social inclusion
- Toward a solution
2. This CAB briefing on the provision of publicly funded family law advice is timely. The Department for Constitutional Affairs is currently reviewing the operation of the Community Legal Service (CLS). The Law Society recently issued its own consultation on the development of the publicly funded sector amongst members and others with interest 1. And a wide-ranging independent review led by David Clementi of "regulation of the legal service market aimed at promoting competition and innovation and improving services for the customer"2 has been commissioned by Lord Falconer, Constitutional Affairs Secretary. There is new research from the user perspective too - the Legal Services Research Centre has published the full results of the first ever national Legal Need Survey
1 The future of publicly funded legal services, Law Society, February 2003
2 Review of the regulatory framework for legal services in England and Wales, launched October 2003,  www.dca.gov.uk
Social Policy contact: James Sandbach Social.policy@citizensadvice.org.uk
Family Misfortunes ( 150kb) - The challenges facing publicly funded family advice
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