A free lawyer may sound like an oxymoron, but last year tens of thousands of people were helped by solicitors and barristers who gave their services without pay.Today is the start of national pro bono week, which showcases the growing number of services around the country where people can get free legal help.
The week-long programme aims to alert the public to these services, while encouraging more lawyers to sign up.
The pro bono (short for “pro bono publico”) movement goes back 30 years to the launch of the Free Representation Unit, which still provides young barristers, solicitors and trainees to represent clients at tribunals where there is no legal aid.
Junior barristers and QCs volunteer their services through the bar’s pro bono unit, established by Lord Goldsmith, now the attorney general, which has just celebrated its 10th birthday.Its successes include seeing off a threat to £50m of pension surpluses on behalf of pensioners from the electrical company Thorn, and collecting a £230,000 award from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority for a building labourer whose knee was shattered in an unprovoked attack coming out of a pub, making him no longer fit for manual work. A recent victory was on behalf of a nurse who successfully fought disciplinary charges threatening her livelihood…
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