Archive for May, 2004
Access for deaf clients
Posted by Rob in Deaf client access on May 31, 2004
In the ABA Journal eReport there is an article about the recent American case of United States of America and City of Bismarck, North Dakota (which settled out of court).
It transpires that the position in the USA in relation to lawyers’ duty to provide an interpreter for their clients is similar to that in the UK.
I quote from the article:
A trend common in the UK is the charges of BSL/English interpreters being pased on by law firms with a Legal Help franchise to the certificate of public funding. However, the Legal Services Commission?s current position is that they will not pay the cost of BSL/English Interpreters.
Read the rest of this entry »
EU Written Declaration on Deafblind People
Deafblindness is now a distinct disability, recognised by the European Union. A written declaration has been signed by 323 members, ensuring that the declaration was adapted on the 1 April 2004.
This has to be a significant move for Deafblind people across the EU, who may not necessary enjoy distinct recognition of their needs in their respective countries, and may too frequently get clumped with Deaf or blind people.
The declaration calls for access plus the right for Communicator-Guides.
From a legal perspective, one would hope this is the first step in exercising EU legal instruments, and a directive is eventually issued.
However, it is recognised as a positive step and it can be utilised by deafblind people across the EU, to push for enhanced provision in their own countries. For it to be simply forgotten about, as what happened with sign languages, would be simply shooting opportunity in the foot.
Clare Norriss: YSG Pro Bono Finalist
Posted by Alison in Solicitors & Deaf Access on May 25, 2004
Congratuations to Clare Norriss who has reached the Young Solicitor’s Group Pro Bono Awards finalist stage.
Clare works for Beachcroft Wansbroughs, and commenced her volunteering as a trainee. She attends evening surgeries at Wandsworth & Merton Law Centre and is on the Centre?s Management Committee. Clare has been a driving force in the inclusion of mediation in the services offered. She also advises at the Tooting surgery ?local solicitor? evenings and played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Law Centre?s Putney advice surgery in 2000 enlisting her then colleagues at Capsticks to join the rota so that a viable service was established. She has developed a specialism in providing legal help to deaf people, and in her spare time is studying sign language.
It is National Pro Bono Week from 7 – 11 June 2004.
Clare has worked with Rob Wilks for a number of months now on individual cases for Deaf clients, and also in setting up a partnership between RAD and WMLC to provide an evening surgery once a month for Deaf clients. They’ve also worked together on the Blind and Deaf Legal Access Project, which has the ultimate aim of setting up the first Deaf Law Centre in the UK.
The amount of dedication Clare has to working with Deaf people is nothing short of astonishing. A Level 2 BSL student herself, Clare’s understanding of d/Deaf issues has grown in an admirable way; she acknowledges that the people who know about Deafies are Deafies themselves, and is convinced that what the Deaf community needs are Deaf lawyers.
Proposed Commission for Equality & Human Rights
Posted by Alison in Disability Discrimination on May 24, 2004
Last week a White Paper was published: Fairness for All: A New Commission for Equality and Human Rights by the DTI.
It is proposed that a single body is established combining the existing Commissions: Disability Rights Commission, Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission; in addition to providing support for the first time, Human Rights, as prescribed by the Human Rights Act 1998.
Without having read the paper, personally welcome such a move, as it merges each of the Commissions, and quite frankly could leave scope for not treating issues in particular vacuums. For example, one could be the subject of disability discrimination in addition to sex equality issues.
However, we do still have some way to go in bringing laws into line, and I would hope that primary legislation addresses this. For example, whilst there is such a concept of indirect discrimination in relation to sex, nothing exists in terms of disability. This puts disabled people at a significant disadvantage.
Another advantage of a single commission enables scope to be widened in future. For example, I have to identify myself as disabled this is what administrative systems demand of me, if I seek redress. Incorporation of a single commission, I would hope that it would allow secondary legislation scope to expand its remit to cover discrimination in relation to minority languages; including British Sign Language (BSL), should much sought after policy development and legislation happen.
In terms of management, I certainly would not support a move for such a body to be managed by the current DRC. DRC as it stands is not mainstream nor accessible enough, in representing out rights. Such a body would need to take the best from existing Commissions and incorporating this into a new body entirely.
For those wishing to respond to this consultation paper, the deadline is the 6 August 2004.
Clementi Review
Posted by Rob in Legal Profession on May 19, 2004
Sir David Clementi released his consultation paper for the Review of the Regulatory Framework of Legal Services in England and Wales in March 2004, inviting responses from all sectors of the legal profession and outside it. The paper discusses how legal services could be regulated in the future. The Government has decided that the legal profession needs an overhaul in how its controlled and regulated and how it handles its complaints systems and regulatory functions. The Terms of Reference that the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs has set down for Sir Clementi to follow are:
1) To consider what regulatory framework would best promote competition, innovation and the public and consumer interest in an efficient, effective and independent legal sector.
2) To recommend a framework which will be independent in representing the public and consumer interest, comprehensive, accountable, consistent, flexible, transparent, and no more restrictive or burdensome than is clearly justified.
3) To make recommendations by 31 December 2004.
The full paper can be downloaded here.
The GSD (namely me) has drafted its response to this consultation, outlining the need for any changes to the legal profession to take into consideration equality and diversity aspects, anti-discrimination legislation and to go farther in ensuring that disabled people, solicitors, trainee solicitors and law students are not discriminated against during the education and training stage, and in practice. This can be seen here.
Please post your comments on the GSD response and/or the Clementi consultation paper itself. We’d like to see what Deafies think of it.
A Meet Up
Posted by Alison in Deaf Lawyers on May 14, 2004
Us Deaf lawyers rarely get a chance to meet. One of the later meets was at a conference last July. Pictured are: Marije Davidson, Shobha Edgell, Rob Wilks, Alison Bryan, Helga Stevens and John Savva. We were lucky enough to have an international flavour, with Helga attending the conference from Belguim. That said, Marije is Dutch! My apologies for the quality of the picture, it is a webcam image of a printed photo.
So when is the next meet? The 20th?
Access to the LPC/BVC
Posted by Rob in Profession Access on May 13, 2004
The single most infuriating problem that exists for Deafies today is the fact that there is little or no funding for terps for postgraduate courses like the CPE or LPC or BVC. Two of our members have suffered from this lack of funding; Alison’s dropped out of the LPC twice because of it, and John has delayed his BVC in order to secure funding. It sucks.
I am the current Chair of the Group for Solicitors with Disabilities, and I am planning to submit a letter together with personal accounts of Deafies’ experiences in accessing the LPC/BVC to the Head of Training and Development at the Law Society, Julie Swan. If you would like your voice heard, please drop me a line.
Tipping the Scale?
My introduction to law, and all things legal happened 16 years ago, when studying my A levels; and subsequent involvement with legal studies and working environments of all sorts since. However, as a mainstream Deaf person, I did not encounter Deaf issues until around 1993. Since then I have tried to merge law and deafness, which has not been as successful as I have hoped.
I have many thoughts on this, but at the start of this blawg, it is probably appropriate for me to comment on how little Deaf involvement there appears to be within the Deaf legal sphere; as it has shaped the start of this website.
A reoccuring theme in this area is how little Deaf people contribute to this, and take a lead. This has been evident at past conferences and various initiatives within this sector. The people who co-ordinate, present, research, manage invariably are hearing. I make this observation in the widest possible context, of the meaning of legal services. Within other Deaf sectors, for example media, Deaf people are leading or at least they have a noticable presence. Not so with law.
Observations aside, an analysis why this is happening should follow. However, this deserves a post in itself. Suffice to say, it is hoped that this blawg goes someway to redressing the balance.
Welcome
Welcome to Deaf Blawg. The aim of this blawg is to provide a forum whereby Deaf lawyers, primarily those who reside in the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), can muse on and discuss issues of a legal nature.
Many of you will have noticed that the www is dominated by Americanised groups of Deaf lawyers, and while we appreciate their feedback and support, we felt it was time that Deaf lawyers in the UK had a place where they should air their views and be confident that they will be considered from a British point of view.
As the numbers of Deaf lawyers in the UK are so small, we are proposing to allow some international Deaf lawyers to post to this blawg. However, this may be reviewed in the future when we have established the policies of Deaf Lawyers UK and determined how these international Deaf lawyers will be allowed to retain their membership. For now, these will be called “associate members”.
If you are Deaf and want to be a lawyer or be otherwise involved in the legal profession, please drop me a bell at rob at exhibitq dot com and I’ll be happy to give you information about joining Deaf Lawyers UK, the egroup and be allowed to post on this blawg.