Legal aid

“ If, on a question of granting a person legal aid under this section, there is a doubt whether it is desirable in the interests of justice that he should have legal aid or whether he has sufficient means to enable him to obtain it, the doubt shall be resolved in favour of granting him legal aid. ”

“ People's courts, people's procuratorates, and public security organs shall, within their respective functions and duties, ensure that the parties obtain legal aid in accordance with the law, and provide convenience for legal aid workers to carry out their work. ”

“ The legal aid society is generally a private organization, created and maintained by public-spirited citizens who believe that the poor and ignorant ought to be given legal advice free of charge, or upon the payment of a nominal fee. These societies extend advice on both civil and criminal matters. The legal aid society helps materially to secure justice by acquainting the individual with his legal rights, and by acting as his counsel in court. Such organizations are especially valuable in safeguarding the rights and privileges of immigrants in large cities. ”

“ We have been clear we must continue to bear down on the cost of legal aid, including nearly £1 billion of taxpayers’ money spent on criminal legal aid a year, to ensure we are getting the best deal for the taxpayer. ”

“ These new and flexible approaches to giving legal aid to the poor recognize that the problems of indigents-although of the type for which an attorney has traditionally been consulted-are too immense to be solved solely by members of the bar. The supply of lawyer manpower is not nearby large enough. [5] But the necessary involvement of lay persons in these programs threatens their success. ”

“ Most legal aid offices, however, have so many pressing obligations f a civil and criminal nature in their own communities and among freemen, as not to be able to provide any satisfactory assistance to prisoners. ”

“ If there were problems involving poverty on the part of the parents, other societies concerning themselves particularly with the problems of financial relief were asked to aid, in order that indirectly the help given to the parents might make itself felt in the better condition of the child. Sometimes free legal advice was obtained from the legal aid society formed for the purpose of giving such advice to those who were unable to pay for it. ”

“ Where a victim in a publicly prosecuted criminal case and his legal representatives or close relatives, the private prosecutor in a privately prosecuted criminal case and his legal representatives, or the plaintiff in a civil action incidental to a criminal case and his legal representatives fail to entrust his case to an agent ad litem due to financial hardship, they may apply to a legal aid institution for legal aid. ”

“ Lawyers' associations shall include in their annual assessments the performance of legal aid obligations by law firms and lawyers, and shall, in accordance with the relevant regulations, sanction the law firms and lawyers who refuse to perform or delay in performing legal aid obligations. ”

“ In communities where no such facilities exist, social workers are in a good position to collect illustrative material and push for desirable changes in law and law enforcement. Especially advantageous is the position of the legal social agencies such as legal aid societies and special bureaus and committees for increasing the efficiency of the courts, many of which are affiliated with or maintained by the large family work societies. ”

“ Given this landscape, the government, starting with this Commission and this White House, can and should encourage the development of specialized public-interest and plaintiffs’ lawyers—first and foremost by advocating for increased funding to organizations that do this appellate work. To start, Legal Aid organizations around the country provide invaluable services to low-income people in the areas of housing, employment, immigration, criminal justice, public benefits, and more. ”

“ Money must be found to pay his witnesses and prepare his case, and this is even more necessary in civil cases than in the defence of prisoners where, as we shall see when we come to consider criminal matters, the State, whilst providing legal aid, has stopped short of providing what may be still more necessary, financial assistance for necessary evidence, some of which may be of an expert and expensive character wholly out of reach of a poor man. ”

“ After all, this is the Nation's ultimate judicial tribunal, not a super-legal-aid bureau. ”

“ To bar equitable relief the legal remedy must be equally effectual with the equitable remedy, as to all the rights of the complainant. Where the remedy at law is not 'as practical and efficient to the ends of justice and its prompt administration,' the aid of equity may be invoked, but if, on the other hand, 'it is plain, adequate, and complete' it must be pursued. ”

“ It was expressed by a New York court in denying an application from the Neighborhood Legal Services for permission to offer a broad legal-aid type of service to indigents:
' (I) n any legal assistance corporation, supported by federal antipoverty funds, the executive staff, and those with the responsibility to hire and discharge staff from the very top to the lowest lay echelon must be lawyers.' Matter of Community Action for Legal Services, 26 A.D.2d 354, 360, 274 N.Y.S.2d 779, 787 (1966) . ”

“ The injuries that are done may seem trivial; but they are not trivial to the sufferers, and the aggregate amount of misery caused is enormous. The Legal Aid Society has made it its business to take up these cases and secure justice. ”

“ Every government, entrusted, by the very terms of its being, with powers and duties to be exercised and discharged for the general welfare, has a right to apply to its own courts for any proper assistance in the exercise of the one and the discharge of the other, and it is no sufficient answer to its appeal to one of those courts that it has no pecuniary interest in the matter. The obligation which it is under to promote the interest of all, and to prevent the wrongdoing of one resulting in injury to the general welfare, is often of itself sufficient to give it a standing in court. ”

“ That condition not having been performed, the state has a right to ask the aid of the court in compelling its performance. And, in granting the relief asked, no right belonging to the company under the constitution or laws of the United States has been violated or withheld. ”

“ The State, working through its qualified welfare agency, has appropriate and paramount interest and concern in seeing and assuring that the intended and proper objects of that tax-produced assistance are the ones who benefit from the aid it dispenses. Surely it is not unreasonable, in the Fourth Amendment sense or in any other sense of that term, that the Stae have at its command a gentle means, of limited extent and of practical and considerate application, of achieving that assurance. ”

“ The House bill required 'a meeting of all need as determined by the State' as a condition to including 'protective payments' within the definition of 'aid to families with dependent children.' The Senate Finance Committee changed that requirement, however, by an amendment which authorized federal funding of 'protective payments' if the state-determined need of individuals with respect to whom such payments were made was fully met by their assistance payment and other income or resources. ”

“ It authorizes grants of money by the United States to States for old age assistance, for administration of unemployment compensation, for aid to dependent children, for maternal and child welfare and for public health. ”

“ From these authorities it is apparent that the time at which a party appeals to a court of equity for relief affects largely the character of the relief which will be granted. If one, aware of the situation, believes he has certain legal rights, and desires to insist upon them, he should do so promptly. ”

“ Again, five hundred thousand dollars is not enough to fully fund massive legal cases, but it is enough for me to be able to help people find legal resources and to have someone, or two people, who can be full time on trying to assist. ”

“ As the District Court correctly concluded,
[t] he stakes are simply too high for the welfare recipient, and the possibility for honest error or irritable misjudgment too great, to allow termination of aid without giving the recipient a chance, if he so desires, to be fully informed of the case against him so that he may contest its basis and produce evidence in rebuttal. ”

“ The Report of the House Committee on the Judiciary notes that the high cost of legal assistance and the superior resources and expertise of the Federal Government precluded private parties from challenging or defending against unreasonable governmental action. ”

“ That the legislature of the United States have power to make laws calling forth such aid from the people, from time to time, as may be necessary to assist the civil officers in the execution of the laws of the United States ”

“ It is certainly contrary to public policy to give the aid of the courts to a vendor who knew that his goods were purchased, or to a lender who knew that his money was borrowed, for the purpose of being employed in the commission of a criminal act, injurious to society or to any of its members. ”

“ The majority holding raises intriguing possibilities concerning the right to a hearing at other stages in the welfare process which affect the total sum of assistance, even though the action taken might fall short of complete termination. For example, does the Court's holding embrace welfare reductions or denial of increases as opposed to terminations, or decisions concerning initial applications or requests for special assistance? The Court supplies no distinguishable considerations and leaves these crucial questions unanswered. ”

“ This provision, we believe, would give the States an additional incentive to make effective use of the constructive programs which the bill would establish. Moreover, this limitation on Federal matching will not prevent any deserving family from receiving aid payments. The States would not be free to keep any family off the rolls to keep within this limitation because there is a requirement in the law that requires equal treatment of recipients and uniform administration of a program within a State. ”

“ In view of the general declarations of the Legislature and the specific findings of the Court obviously we cannot say as matter of law that the grounds do not exist, and if they exist they justify the result. We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. ”

“ May not the want in most instances be inferred from the demand when the service can be proved, and may not the last days of human infirmity be spared the mortification of purchasing a pittance of relief only by the exposure of its own necessities? I submit to Congress the expediency of providing for individual cases of this description by special enactment, or of revising the act of May 1st, 1820, with a view to mitigate the rigor of its exclusions in favor of persons to whom charity now bestowed can scarcely discharge the debt of justice. ”

“ It deprecates, accordingly, the supplementation of Poor Law relief by charity, and recommends that charity should confine itself to such cases, and such forms of relief, as cannot properly be given by the Poor Law, each agency assuming the whole responsibility for its own department of the work. As a practical suggestion, it advocates co-operation between Guardians and charitable agencies with a view to the co-ordination of relief work together with the registration of relief in every district, the interchange of lists of those helped, and other means of attaining the objects aimed at. ”