A DISTRICT COURT judge last week called for called for mandatory legal aid for all domestic violence cases.
Speaking at a conference on domestic violence and child protection on Friday, Judge John Campbell said “the working poor very often will lose out” on legal aid due to the “strict requirements” in place.
He said the court can make an order that they be provided with legal aid, but they do not qualify as a right “which hampers the fair procedure of the case”.
He said while the court service staff and the judges do their best to help victims of domestic violence in court, “there should be mandatory legal aid for those people”.
In order to quality for legal aid, you must have an annual disposable income of less than €18,000 and disposable assets of less than €100,000.
Following the remarks, Fianna Fáil justice spokesperson Jim O’Callaghan called for the government to “carefully consider and act upon” what was said. There were also calls to raise the income threshold for legal aid.
But what do you think? Today we’re asking, Should there be free legal aid for all domestic violence cases?
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