Reshaping Legal Services in Wales – Speech by Warren Palmer, Director of the Speakeasy Law Centre

On 13 September 2023, Board Members and colleagues from the Legal Service Board (LSB) visited the Speakeasy Law Centre in Cardiff to learn more about the work it is doing to improve access to justice in Wales.

On the same day, the Legal Services Board hosted a stakeholder event at the Senedd in Cardiff – Reshaping Legal Services in Wales. The speech given by Warren Palmer, Director of the Speakeasy Law Centre, is below. Check against delivery.

Speech by Warren Palmer

Thank you for inviting me to talk about the importance of Law Centres and social welfare lawyers in Wales.

I am the Director of the Speakeasy Law Centre, currently the only Law Centre in Wales.

We have worked in Cardiff and South East Wales for 30 years, starting as a debt advice centre but taking on other areas of law as we have seen the need and been able to do so.  But in 2019 we applied to become a Law Centre –  recognising that it would give us support in facing the very real challenges of maintaining a good and effective service – and that it would make us more visible to others, making it easier for those in need of our services to find us.

Law Centres are important because of the nature of the work they do and the clients that they represent.  They concentrate on social welfare law, housing, employment, welfare benefits appeals, sometimes debt, family or immigration.  These areas of law can be complex and those affected very often do not have the money to pay for legal advice.

Of course, there are other organisations, particularly Citizens Advice, who do great work in giving advice and information for these issues, but there is still a very real need for solicitors and legally trained advisers here.

• For example, people in low paid or precarious jobs are often subject to unfair treatment by their employer – but making an Employment Tribunal claim is difficult and expensive
• Housing law can be complex and the pressure on local authorities huge – legal training can often make the difference in finding a way through
• Welfare Benefit appeals can also be really challenging – for instance, there are twice as many Universal Credit sanctions imposed now by the DWP than before the pandemic – this is where the basic monthly entitlement is stopped, sometimes for weeks or months – inevitably plunging people into hardship and debt – the DWP often fails to follow the correct procedure in imposing such sanctions, but it is complicated to challenge on that basis

We currently have a 100% record of success at benefit sanction appeals – we have helped a number of people make Employment Tribunal claims, leading to successful judgments, or favourable settlements and we have overturned many adverse housing decisions by local authorities, securing our clients better accommodation.

So, there is a real need for the legal profession to be involved in social welfare law in Wales, but in the last 10 years we have seen the loss of Cardiff Law Centre – the original Welsh Law Centre and one of the oldest in the country, and Ty Arian Law in Swansea, both to legal aid cuts.  And we have seen private practices often handing back their legal aid contracts because they could not make them work.  That has left Shelter Cymru as the only organisation in Wales regularly doing housing work under legal aid.

But if the years after LASPO were the lowest point, thankfully the last few years have seen some really encouraging signs of growth.

Shelter Cymru has obviously continued doing its great work throughout this time, in spite of the legal aid cuts to housing.

Asylum Justice has been quietly providing expert legal advice and representation in the areas of asylum and immigration, and it is has been great to see it growing even more in the last couple of years.

The Public Law Project appointed its first Wales lawyer in 2020.   Matthew Court often uses a desk in our office, which makes it very easy to work together and he has made a number of public law challenges for our clients – in one case last year, he was successful in the High Court for one of our clients, with the result that the defending local authority is required to change its policy towards illegal evictions in its area.

Perhaps most exciting of all, there has been a steering group working towards the setting up of a new law centre in north Wales.  It is not yet a law centre as it is working towards accreditation.  But more importantly, its first solicitor started work earlier this month and she will be joined by a caseworker at the start of October.

They will be based at the Aberconwy Domestic Abuse Service in Llandudno Junction and will work closely with that organisation to provide both family and housing law services for the surrounding area.

But between all those organisations named, and ourselves, there are probably about 12 or 13 practising solicitors in all –  there are other advisers, paralegals, trainees, working closely with those solicitors, but given the level of need, the complexity of many of the cases, it would be good to have more.

There is help in some pro bono support by local solicitors – many employment solicitors have volunteered at a pro bono clinic run by the Speakeasy Law Centre and last year a new Wales Pro Bono committee was set up, including LawWorks, Advocate, the judiciary, the bar and the advice sector – but it is fair to say that we have some way to catch up on the pro bono work carried out in some English cities.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, there is a real need for legal expertise for complex social welfare law cases in Wales.

There are encouraging signs of growth and new initiatives.

But there are ongoing challenges and a need for more.