A world of advice

By guiding people to the right advisers, the community legal service will improve legal provision, say three champions of the service, Lincoln Crawford, Mark Stephens and Philip Sycamore

Many of us have been approached by clients whose problems can be solved relatively easily - a low-income client who needs help with a straight-forward debt problem or a minor consumer dispute.You probably advise your clients on the best way to deal with such problems, but you might have taken the view that a local advice centre in the area where they live could have been able to deal with the issue more appropriately.

Most people have at some point wondered why people in need cannot easily find the person best equipped to deal with their problems.The Community Legal Service (CLS) will make such problems a thing of the past.

Clients will not have to trek across town and queue for hours only to discover that an advice centre does not deal with debt problems.

They will easily be able to find the nearest advice centre or solicitor that specialises in their type of problem.

And if they do end up in the wrong place, or if their problem proves to need a different kind of expertise, they will be referred to the appropriate specialist.The CLS will create a framework in which solicitors, advice professionals and those who fund them work together to establish the range of advice provision their local community needs.

Historically, there have been ad hoc relationships.

The local CLS partnerships will create a comprehensive and fully rounded set of links with advice agencies.

Local community legal service partnerships are establishing referral networks to put those in need in touch with someone who will be able to help them.

The exchange is two-way: solicitors will refer clients to advice centres and vice versa.

Already there are more than 100 CLS partnerships - covering almost half of the population of England and Wales - delivering benefits to both advice providers and the general public.

This is a real opportunity for lawyers to develop their practices.The new quality mark is a crucial component of the Community Legal Service, setting agreed minimum service standards for the delivery of advice.

Advice providers - such as solicitors' firms, Citizens Advice Bureaux, law centres and independent advice centres - must be accredited by the new Legal Services Commission in order to display the CLS quality mark in their windows.

It ensures that clients will be dealt with by those who meet the standard.

This provides reassurance for the consumer as well as the referrer.

Already, more than 6,000 advice providers have been awarded the quality mark, with many more following each day.The CLS is helping to deliver greater access to legal advice.

Its directory, telephone directory line and Web site are making information available to help people of all backgrounds solve their everyday legal problems.

The service will also produce a range of benefits for solicitors and advice workers.

First and foremost, the CLS will enable greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Minor debt and consumer problems may well be dealt with more appropriately in the community by advice centres, allowing solicitors to concentrate on the more substantial legal problems.

Solicitors will be able to spend more time at the sharp end, finding solutions to complex legal questions, and representing people in court proceedings.The CLS has put the provision of legal advice on the government's agenda at a time when people have an expectation of having greater respect for their individual human rights.

The CLS provides a forum for the assertion of those rights with proper, informed and appropriate advice.

It will, in the coming years, create a better system for both people seeking advice and professionals delivering it.

We hope that you will get involved at a local level and help to make the CLS a success.You can locate your nearest CLS member by telephoning 0845 608 1122 (and a minicom number for the hard of hearing on 0845 609 6677), or logging on to the Web site of the CLS at www.justask.org.uk.

Lincoln Crawford is a practising barrister and former chairman of the Bar Council's race relations committee, Mark Stephens is the head of international and media at London-based law firm Finers Stephens Innocent and Philip Sycamore is a partner at Preston-based law firm Lonsdales and a former President of the Law Society