Provision of legal services - role of legal profession

Fixed fee interview	Some solicitors may give up to half an hour's legal advice for a fixed fee (not more than £25).
Accident Line	This scheme offers a free initial interview with a solicitor to someone who has suffered personal injury because of an accident. Web site here
Trades unions	Trades unions may provide free legal representation for all accidents during working hours or travel to or from work.
Motoring organisations	Motoring organisations, for example, AA/RAC, may offer a cheap or free legal advisory service if the person is a member.
Legal expenses insurance	Some insurance companies offer policies that cover the expenses of certain legal matters, for example, consumer disputes, personal injuries, employment problems and motoring offences.
Consumers' Association	Other organisations, for example, the Consumers' Association, offer a legal advisory service to people who pay a subscription.
Law centres	There are about 60 Law centres where free legal advice is given. Law centres often specialise in housing, employment, immigration, juvenile crime and welfare benefits. Many provide publicly funded legal services.
*Pro bono publica*	The Free Representation Unit offers free legal representation by young lawyers and law students at tribunals and other hearings for which legal aid is not available. Similarly, the Bar Pro Bono Unit provides free representation for people with "deserving" legal problems who cannot afford legal advice and are not eligible for legal aid; this involves a substantial number of experienced barristers, including some QCs. Some of the work done by these two Units comes from the Citizens' Advice Bureaux. Some associations, such as Families Need Fathers will represent free of charge in needy cases.
Websites	There is a wealth of legal advice offered by charitable societies and interest groups.
Other government bodies	Town halls offer services particularly in consumer matters. The Office of Fair Trading also operates in this field.
Newspapers, magazines other media.	Many ‘help columns’ exist in newspapers, magazines, radio and television programmes.
Friends and relations	Many individuals have been through legal events and have close personal knowledge of what can and cannot be done in particular the personal and emotional costs.
Private funding	A wealthy litigant may be able to pay for legal advice and representation from her own pocket. Alternatively, a poorer litigant may try to save some of the costs by going it alone as a "litigant in person". In the "McLibel" case the two defendants represented themselves and succeeded on several points, but could theoretically have faced a bill for £10 million for the costs of McDonalds' pyrrhic victory.
Insurance	"After the event" policies can be taken out after the accident has occurred if a solicitor advises there is a good chance of winning. The premium on such a policy is quite high - typically about 10% of the sum covered - though this premium is recoverable (under the Access to Justice Act 1999) if the case is won and costs awarded against the losing party. Freestanding policies specifically cover legal expenses have to be taken out and annual premiums paid before the incident giving rise to the claim. Many exclude particular types of action such as divorce and defamation. The premium for such a policy might be £200 a year for cover up to £50 000.
Sponsorship	Occasionally, litigants obtain sponsorship from other people who have an interest in the outcome of an action they are taking. For example Neil Hamilton the disgraced MP who sued Al-Fyed for libel, received his legal expenses from friends who where unknown until after the trial when the judge order Hamilton to reveal their names.
Charities	Many charities offered legal advice and sometimes legal assistance, for example the British Kidney Patients Association.
Public law cases	A narrow area of law involving decisions by public bodies who can be brought to account by the Public Law Project. Public law remedies are those procedures by which citizens can challenge the fairness or legality of the decisions of public authorities. They include judicial review in the High Court, and also non-court based procedures, such as ombudsmen schemes and complaints procedures.
Conditional fees	A claimant cannot have access to justice if he cannot afford a lawyer's fees, or cannot obtain a lawyer. Conditional fees provide a partial solution, more on conditional fees here. Awarding costs is always a matter for the judge's discretion. The judge can award costs against anyone, even if they are not a party to the action.
"Costs follow the event"	The usual rule: "Costs follow the event" in other words "loser pays all". This rule encourages resolution of cases according to merits encourages strong cases to be settled deters weak cases. discourages speculative litigation. "Loser pays all" distributes the risk of litigation according to the merits of the case.
Legally aided cases fly in the face of the "Loser pays all" rule	"Loser pays all" does not apply in legally aided cases. The legally aided party has statutory protection and so is in a no lose situation. The other party is in a no win situation. So weak cases are brought, by people on legal aid. The success rate of legally aided cases is 27 per cent in clinical negligence and 0% in pharmaceutical litigation. This can have the effect of cases being settled even though they have no merit and is described as "legal aid blackmail" (Anthony Barton in his review of Arkin -v- Borchard Lines Ltd and another (No 5) [2004] Commercial Court). In Arkin the court had to decide whether to deter weak claims or accept the widening access to justice. The court decided that access to justice was such an important consideration that it should prevail. The courts are therefore promoting the privatisation of access to justice, and so making it available to more people.
Going to law can be expensive	BCCI liquidators dropped a £1 billion claim against the Bank of England, more than £100 million had been swallowed up in legal costs.