LEGAL AID, a phrase which has acquired by usage and court decision a specific meaning and is now the standard term employed to denote giving to poor persons, gratis or for nominal fees, legal advice and assistance in their legal matters and sup plying counsel to represent them in court in civil and criminal cases. Legal aid work is generally carried on by incorporated or otherwise legally constituted societies or bureaux. They main tain offices to which poor persons may apply as clients, employ salaried lawyers who devote all their time to interviewing, advis ing and acting in behalf of such poor persons as are found to have meritorious legal cases, and defray the cost of clerical wages and other operating expenses. Their funds come from contribu tions by philanthropic people in the community, from public grants, or both. Where legal aid is supported by the public treas ury it is commonly established by ordinances, as a bureau of the welfare department of the municipal government. Where pri vately supported, the legal aid organization is either a charitable corporation formed for this specific purpose, or is a department of a general charitable corporation. In both cases the contributors elect the officers and directors to supervise the work. Officers who are devoted primarily to helping poor persons in criminal cases are usually called "public defenders." In all civilized nations the individual's right to life, liberty and property depends on law. He can obtain protection or redress only through legal proceedings. Governments maintain courts to determine and enforce rights; but the expenses of liti gation, including counsel fees, are more than poor persons can pay. Legal history reveals a constant and not over successful struggle to make adequate provisions for the poor so that they will not be denied justice. As modern society became more complex through industrialization and urbanization, the problem was intensified because these factors engendered a mass of new litigation and the rapid growth of population augmented the number of persons near the poverty line.
Solutions have been attempted along two lines. The first con sists of statutory provisions under which a poor person may ap peal to a judge, satisfy him as to his poverty and the merit of his claim, and then be exempted from court costs and have a lawyer assigned to represent him. This plan is the backbone of
the legal aid systems in Europe. Its structural defect is that it deals only with litigation and makes no provision for the multi tude of cases in which the poor need counsel to advise them, to draw wills, contracts or other documents for them, or to concili ate, settle or otherwise adjust a controversy without a lawsuit, and in the aggregate such matters far outnumber the cases re quiring resort to courts. Also this plan has broken down because overburdened courts and attorneys have been reluctant to assume the extra work it required of them. This has been felt in Eng land, and in the United States it forced a general abandonment of the plan and the substitution of another. The second plan is exemplified by the legal aid societies and bureaux, which are intended to provide lawyers paid to act for the poor in all mat ters. Its defect lies in the fact that these organizations have developed independently, and not as integral parts of the ad ministration of justice, and they are often forced to limit their service through lack of funds. A combination of the two plans would seem to provide an ideal solution, but this has been effectuated only in Sweden.