All the societies and bureaux, having been formed in different cities by local groups, were independent of each other and autono mous until, in 1923, at a constitutional convention held in Cleve land, they organized the National Association of Legal Aid Or ganizations with power to co-ordinate their activities, especially in referring cases from one city to another, to guide the future development of the work, and to control legal aid in its national aspects. Under this last power arrangements were made with the U.S. Supreme Court whereby poor persons appealing to it could be given legal assistance. While these legal aid organizations are not an organic part of the American judicial structure, they play so important a part in the administration of justice that inevi tably they are moving in that direction and more and more are deriving their support and leadership from the organized bar. A score of State bar associations have legal aid committees and the American Bar Association has, since 1921, maintained a stand ing committee on legal aid work. Through the National Associa tion of Legal Aid Organizations co-operative relationships with other important groups have been established—with the Asso ciation of Governmental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada, with the Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions and with the American Association for Organizing Family Social Work.
The plan of establishing definite legal aid offices, analogous to those in the United States, has never taken root in England. Some university settlements and kindred charities have main tained evening office hours where volunteer solicitors are in at tendance and can be consulted. But as these ventures have never been soundly financed and have continued only by virtue of the self-sacrificing labours of a few devoted persons, their activities have been severely restricted, and they are totally inade quate to cope with a problem of this magnitude.
The Scottish system is basically the same as the English, but has proved more effective in actual practice, perhaps because its procedure for legal aid has been in uninterrupted operation since 1574. The various solicitors' associations each year designate a number of their members to act as agents for the poor. After the applicant has produced satisfactory certificates from his parish proving his poverty, the agent files a petition to allow him to sue in forma pauperis. If this petition is approved by a tribunal of four attorneys, the applicant is admitted to the Poor Rolls and is exempted from paying the usual costs, and the court assigns him a counsel from a list prepared by the Faculty of Advocates. In this way almost 2,000 persons a year are given legal aid in litigation. This method proves more satisfactory in smaller cities
and towns and invariably shows signs of strain when applied in large centres of population. In Edinburgh some additional service was found to be essential, and the Edinburgh Legal Dispensary was patterned after the Legal Aid Society in New York.
Continental Europe.—The French legal aid system of l'assistance judiciaire gratuite is closely analogous to the English in forma pauperis and the Scottish poor rolls procedure. Its his tory traces back to the Code Napoleon, which probably represents the codification of earlier provisions, and it has always func tioned with reasonable success. Attached to each court is a tribunal of representatives of the legal corporations (bar associa tions) which determines whether the applicant is indeed poor and has a proper claim. If so, the poor person is excused from the customary fees and is assigned a counsel who is helped in his work by law students, service in this capacity being required of them prior to admission to the bar. While this system makes the courts accessible to the poor, it fails to afford them legal aid in all non-litigious matters.
The other countries of continental Europe follow substantially the same plan and method, but there are some noteworthy varia tions. Denmark for over a century has had a splendid system of conciliation tribunals in which the small cases of the poor are given quick and inexpensive justice, and in Copenhagen there is a well-established legal aid office in which law students actively participate. Norway has a parallel system of conciliation tribunals but no legal aid organizations. In Sweden, the system of assign ing counsel to act for poor persons works exceptionally well be cause it is based on the just principle that such counsel should be paid suitably for their work by order of the court. In addi tion a strong legal aid society exists in Stockholm under a law which provides that, if any municipality or district establishes a legal aid office, part of the expenses will be borne by the royal treasury. There have grown up in Germany a large number of legal aid bureaux, many of them affiliated with political parties or labour unions.
International Legal Aid.—The European nations concluded a Convention on Civil Procedure at The Hague in 1905, under which each nation extends to the citizens of every other the right to apply to its courts for the same legal aid as is afforded to its own poor. Thus, by reciprocity, a poor national of any European country may obtain legal aid from the courts of every other European country. Neither Great Britain nor the United States has become a signatory to this convention.
Under the auspices of the League of Nations there met at Geneva, in 1924, a committee of legal aid experts representing France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain and the United States, to devise plans for bringing all the legal aid agencies of the world into closer communication. On their recom mendation the Assembly of the League authorized its secretary general to collect and publish the laws of the various nations making provisions for the poor and a list of all ascertainable legal aid organizations. The volume containing this information was published in 1928.