The Law Is for the Middle Class

The scan: The Week v8 no23.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

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from Barbara Wilson Speaking at a Child Poverty Action Group conference in London on last Saturday, Mr. Zander, a lecturer in law at the London School of Economics, described the law as middle-class, remote and discriminating against the poor. Because of the way it functions the poorer sections of the community tend to see it as a hostile maze and fail to use its advice and services. The legal aid scheme, he said, handled a mere 60,000 cases of advice a year, compared with 150,000 by a single newspaper advice bureau. The hundreds .of firms of solicitors in London dealt with only 4,000 cases against 2,500 handled by an East London voluntary advice centre operating one night a week. Only one in ten of those entitled to money from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board had applied for it. Only three-fifths of those entitled to rate rebates had asked for them. Solicitors tend to be concentrated in the middle class areas,he added.