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| Advice agencies play a valuable role in providing legal advice to the public and yet there has been little research into their relationship with solicitors. The Scottish Office commissioned this study to investigate the relationship between advice agencies and solicitors in Scotland, with particular reference to the process of referrals from advice agencies to solicitors. The aim of the research was to assist in developing policy to improve access to legal advice whilst making the most efficient use of legal aid budgets. |
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| Main Findings |
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- Advice agencies tended to provide advice in the following areas: welfare benefits, debt and money advice, housing, employment and faulty goods and services.
- Agencies are funded primarily by the public sector with local authorities being the main source of funding. They are therefore subject to local authority funding constraints.
- Only 5% of enquiries to advice agencies were referred to solicitors outside the agencies. An enquiry was more likely to be referred if it concerned a subject that was perceived to be a staple of the traditional solicitor's business, such as marital issues, residence of or contact with children or cases concerning personal injury. Cases that required a legal action to be raised were also more likely to be referred.
- Referrals from advice agencies to solicitors work well, with agencies confident about which cases should be referred and when. In a very small number of cases, concerns were expressed both by solicitors and advice agency managers about the ability of agencies to recognise when an issue might have a legal solution.
- Once a case was referred by an agency to a solicitor, that agency tended to have no further involvement in the case.
- Clients were generally satisfied with the services they received from advice agencies and from solicitors although satisfaction with agencies was slightly higher.
- Many agencies reported difficulties in finding an appropriate solicitor to refer a client to. This related primarily to difficulties in finding a solicitor with the required specialist knowledge. It was most difficult to find a solicitor working within the subject areas frequently dealt with by advice agencies. The other main obstacle was a concern on the part of the client about costs.
- Advisers initially welcomed the idea of solicitors working within advice agencies, believing it would result in easier access to solicitors, increased training opportunities and a seamless approach for clients. However, few agency offices had sufficient workload to justify having a solicitor on the premises. They also felt that there could be a number of other problems related to funding, potential conflicts of values, possible reduction in the efficient use of existing staff and volunteers and competition with the private sector.
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| Introduction |
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Advice agencies play an important role in the provision of legal advice to the public. Despite this, little research has been undertaken into the relationship between advice agencies and solicitors. This research was commissioned by The Scottish Office to examine that relationship in the context of the process of referrals from advice agencies to solicitors with a view to stimulating and informing the debate on how access to civil justice can be equitably provided and improved. - More specifically the research aimed to:
- Provide information on the range and type of advice agencies in Scotland
- Investigate how and why advice workers decide which cases require legal advice
- Identify and describe the different methods by which advice agencies draw on legal advice or refer cases for legal advice
- Provide information on the numbers and characteristics of cases which fall into the different methods identified
- Assess the impact that the different ways of invoking legal advice have on the characteristics, progress and outcome of cases
- Consider the implications of the research for the development of policy in respect of legal aid, advice agencies and the legal profession including information, training and support
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| A profile of advice agencies |
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Advice agencies tended to be members of one or more of the following key organisations: - Agencies run directly by the local authority (LA)
- Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) or those affiliated to Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS)
- Federation of Independent Advice Centres (FIAC)
- Money Advice Scotland (MAS)
- Shelter
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| Agencies were funded primarily by the public sector, with local authorities being the main source of funding. |
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| Agencies tended to provide advice in the areas of welfare benefits, debt and money advice, housing, employment and faulty goods and services (see Chart 1). Many of these areas were perceived to be not well provided for by solicitors in private practice. |
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| Nearly three in ten agencies said they had access to an in-house solicitor predominantly from local authorities, Shelter and Law Centres. |
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| The majority of agencies would provide a representation service for clients, largely within the subject areas listed above and in addition to other types of advice and assistance. This was however often dependent on the resources available to the agency at the time of the enquiry. Where agencies made use of volunteers, these were not always available when needed. |
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| Volunteers were used to a varying extent, with the CABx network making the greatest use of volunteers. The agencies run directly by local authorities made very little or no use of volunteers, depending instead on paid staff. |
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| All agencies, whether making use of volunteers or not, placed a very high priority on training which was seen as an essential feature of the management of their service. |
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| Referrals |
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| The majority of advice agency clients are not referred to a solicitor and the enquiry is dealt with by the first adviser with whom the client has contact at the agency (78% - see Chart 2). About one in twenty cases were referred to someone else within their own agency and in addition, less than 2% of clients were referred to a solicitor within the agency. One in ten clients were referred to another adviser at another agency. The level of referrals to solicitors outside of the agency is low at just over 5% |
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| Whilst about one third of all agencies reported that they had at some stage referred clients to a Law Centre (rising to 80% in the Glasgow area, where availability is higher), very few referrals to Law Centres were recorded in the week in which client contacts with agencies were studied. Referrals recorded to Law Centres during this period were less than 0.5%. |
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| An enquiry was much more likely to be referred to a solicitor if it concerned a subject that is a staple of the traditional solicitors' business e.g. marital issues, residence of or contact with children or cases concerning personal injury. They were much less likely to be referred in cases within the expertise of the advice agency and for which solicitors did not traditionally cater such as welfare benefits (see Chart 3). |
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| The most common circumstance leading to a referral to a solicitor was the need to raise a legal action. |
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| Agencies were confident of their abilities to recognise which clients should be referred to a solicitor and at what point a referral should be made. Most solicitors agreed that the majority of referrals they received were appropriate. |
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| There were nevertheless concerns raised (largely by solicitors) that, in a very small minority of cases, the advisers at agencies were unable to recognise that a legal solution might exist. Some solicitors had also had experience of receiving referrals later than they would have preferred. This had on occasions resulted in restricting the options open to the solicitors to resolve the problem e.g. in a case of eviction or debt. |
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| When referring a client to a solicitor, the majority of agencies will not recommend a specific solicitor, despite the fact that the majority of clients do not have a regular solicitor of their own, nor have any recommendations from friends or family. Instead, most agencies favour providing a short list of appropriate solicitors from which a client can choose. |
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| Clients were generally satisfied with the services they received from both the advice agencies and solicitors with satisfaction with agencies being slightly higher (see Chart 4). |
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| Those who had seen a solicitor were more critical of the advice agency than those who only saw the advice agency. Satisfaction levels with advice agencies overall nevertheless remain higher than ratings of solicitors. However for the group who had seen both an advice agency and a solicitor, the difference was less marked. It was, in fact, only on the attributes of speed, the way they listened and talked to clients and, to a lesser extent, ability to take action that satisfaction with advice agencies was greater. |
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| Access to solicitors |
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| Although agencies found it easy to make decisions about which clients to refer on and when to make the referral, many agencies reported difficulties in finding an appropriate solicitor to refer to (see Chart 5). Their main difficulties centred on the lack of solicitors with an expertise in a particular subject and clients' concern about fees. |
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| The main reasons given for not seeing a solicitor or pursuing a case were feelings that it would be expensive (often linked to restrictions in the availability of legal aid), difficulties in finding a solicitor within the legal aid scheme and the image of solicitors generally. |
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| Advantages and disadvantages of solicitors working within advice agencies |
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| One possible solution to some of the difficulties noted above was seen as the placement of solicitors within advice agencies. Agency advisers and solicitors gave their views on the advantages and disadvantages of such a proposal. |
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| Typically agencies were attracted to the idea of easy access to a solicitor but on reflection they also saw a number of drawbacks to having a solicitor working within the agency. |
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| The advantages were that they would have easy access to a solicitor with expertise in the subject areas being dealt with. This ease of access would enable more rapid and earlier access and also enhanced training for the agency staff and volunteers. The advantages for clients would be that the agency could offer a seamless approach and would be able to see a case through to its conclusion. Additionally, a solicitor within an agency would not have the same time and business constraints as a solicitor in private practice. |
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| When discussing these advantages it was assumed that there would be an interaction between the advisers and the solicitor. The research shows that in fact little such interaction takes place at present. |
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| The majority of agencies did not feel they had sufficient volume of work coming through to keep one solicitor fully employed and they foresaw difficulties in funding a solicitor. Advice agency staff also wanted their service to be free at the point of delivery and saw complications in becoming involved with the legal aid system and possible clawbacks of legal aid from clients. |
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| Other concerns included a possible conflict of values between advisers and solicitors and some felt that there was a need for the solicitor to be independent of the agency. Some also mentioned that there might be problems associated with solicitors working on their own or with a solicitor being managed by an agency manager who might not be legally qualified. |
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| Other possible disadvantages were that it could become too easy to pass cases on to a solicitor and hence existing staff resources might be used less efficiently. A solicitor working within an agency could also have an adverse effect on volunteer commitment. |
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| Finally, some agencies saw possible adverse effects on the business of local solicitors in private practice and there was also the possibility of stimulating demand from the public away from private practice. Countering this, there was a view among solicitors that much of the work within these subject areas yielded little profit in any case. |
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| Improving access to solicitors |
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| One possible way forward, suggested by some advice agency advisers and law centre solicitors, would be to place solicitors within second tier agencies. On this model, solicitors would deal with first tier generalist agencies and largely achieve the advantages which agencies saw in having an in-house solicitor but without incurring at least some of the disadvantages. |
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| Both second tier advice agencies and law centres were discussed briefly in the course of depth interviews and were perceived positively by those who had access to them and had used them. The main concern about the law centre concept (and this would apply to solicitors placed within specialist second tier agencies) related to how it would operate within rural areas. |
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| Conclusion |
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| The referral process from advice agencies to solicitors appears to work satisfactorily in the majority of cases. There is however, some room for improvement in subject areas outwith the traditional staples of the generalist solicitor. In those subject areas, the efficiency of first tier agencies and access to solicitors could potentially be improved by placing solicitors within second tier agencies with funding provided centrally. |
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| About the study |
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| The research was undertaken in 4 phases between October 1996 and July 1997. It concentrated on the activities and views of advice agencies, on an examination of a sample of actual cases and finally on the views of agency clients. |
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| The first phase of the research was based on self-completion questionnaires returned by 273 advice agencies spread across Scotland. The second phase comprised 25 in depth interviews with advice agency managers and advisers plus 10 interviews with solicitors both within law centres and private practice. The third phase examined the details of 2,010 enquiries received by 29 advice agencies over the course of one week. The fourth and final phase involved telephone interviews with 183 advice agency clients, of whom 32 had additionally seen a solicitor. |
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| Referrals Between Advice Agencies and Solicitors (1999), the research report summarised in this Research Findings document, may be purchased (price £5 per copy). Cheques should be made payable to the Stationery Office and sent to: |
The Stationery Office Bookshop,
71 Lothian Road,
Edinburgh,
EH3 9AZ. |
| Telephone: 0131-228 4181 or Fax: 0131-622 7017 |
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| The report can also be ordered from:www.thestationeryoffice.co.uk |
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| Further free copies of this Research Findings or information about the Central Research Unit's Research Programmes may be obtained by contacting: |
The Scottish Office Central Research Unit,
Room J1-0,
Saughton House,
Broomhouse Drive,
Edinburgh EH11 3XA |
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| This document and other Research Findings and reports may be viewed on the Internet at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/ |