Legal Clinic - Problems

Problems

• The integration of the clinic within the law school – this covers:
  • Clinic may become isolated from the law school – it is important to link the substantive law courses and work done in clinic (i.e. re-examining cases from clinics in other law-classes)
  • The clinic may be marginalised and treated as merely providing poverty law service to the community. Introduction of clinics require embracing the direction in educational philosophy that lies behind the teaching of skills.
• Staffing problem – there are usually too few university teachers, who are qualified to practice, and very few of these had actually worked as lawyers for any period of time
• Resources- the students must be individually supervised, making the clinical education much more expensive compared to the traditional classes of large groups. Extra resources must therefore be allocated to the teaching and running of the clinic. On the other hand, clinics are usually very popular among students, therefore the issue arises, how to choose those who can attend them.
• Difficulties in supervision and assessment – Supervising students in the clinic is subject to pressures that pull in opposite directions. Arriving at the right balance can be difficult. On the one hand the student learns best if left with as much control over a case as possible so that there is room to make mistakes, appreciate how things may be done differently and change practice or behaviour accordingly. If ‘learning by doing’ is to be the leitmotif, it is no good looking over the student’s shoulder all the time to correct what is being done. On the other hand, the obvious danger is that too much freedom will be given to the student and that this could result in a poor or even negligent service being provided to a client. The public could be used as guinea pigs for the inexperienced. It is therefore essential for a system of supervision to include checks on the quality of work being done e.g. the approval of all letters sent out, certain interviews recorded, file entries checked and diaries examined. It is also crucial that the supervisor be given sufficient knowledge of what the student has done in order to provide effective feedback and ensure that the clinical work forms part of the skills learning experience. In the end, also assessment of the work has to be done in some way, otherwise the student may treat the clinical work as less important.
• The dangers of public service – Although the idea of providing free legal advice is attractive to those who wish to see the university become more closely involved with the wider community where it is based, problems can develop if the public service aim takes precedence over that of providing a sound and well rounded legal education.
• Relationship with the local legal profession – Some may fear that a legal clinic offering free legal work will upset the law school’s relation with the local legal profession. However, far from reducing the amount of work done by local practitioners, the clinic is likely to expand it. This is because it stimulates resort to the law, and the need for advice is increased out of proportion to the clinic’s ability to deal with it. A referral system to local firms for certain types of advice or assistance is essential, and the number of people thus sent to lawyers far outweighs the work taken on by the clinic and that otherwise would have been dealt with a law firm. Far from being a source of friction, the clinic helps to foster a closer relationship with the local legal profession.