What services do PILS provide?

• PILS can have an initial conversation over the phone or via email to help our members establish if there are any legal issues. Maybe the issue you are facing has a legal basis and could be addressed using a particular process? Maybe you are unsure if this question can be answered using human rights or equality law? The PILS staff can help you figure out what your options are. It might not even involve PILS or the law at all!
• The PILS Project’s Project Manager is also a solicitor with a practicing certificate. Once we have a clearer picture of a member’s legal query, our Project’s Solicitor can provide legal advice to steer you in the right direction. If your query relates to human rights and equality issues that could affect a broad group of people, then PILS can talk to you about the possible next steps.
• The next steps could include pre-litigation options, such as connecting the PILS member who made the request with additional legal professionals, or suggesting alternatives to court, such as seeking redress via an ombudsman.

For example, after PILS received a legal query from a group of parents in relation to the proposed closure of a school in Fermanagh, we organised a roundtable on the issue. It brought representatives from the parent’s group, PILS, IEF, Rural Community Network and the Children’s Law Centre together in the same room – giving everyone involved the opportunity to ask more questions and coordinate a suitable response.

PILS can work alongside our members, right from the beginning of the court process to the eventual conclusion – and beyond. In strategic cases, a judgment is just one part of the overall story. Often there is a lot of work required to turn the judge’s decision into a reality for people.

For example, PILS was part of a Judgment Implementation Group (JIG) after the judicial review involving Drumragh Integrated College in Omagh. The JIG brought the school and relevant civil society groups together with the Department of Education to ensure the judgment was brought to life and its ruling implemented. More info on the Drumragh case is available on our website and in our Impact Report.

All applications for direct legal support are decided by the PILS Board. Their decision is final, but the PILS Board can review applications if the circumstances change. The Board assess each application against a set of criteria to ensure that the issue falls within PILS remit and that we are the organisation in the best position to support. The criteria assess if:

• The issue is related to human rights and/or equality
• Vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are affected, so pursuing the issue is in the public interest
• Resolving the issue will impact more than just one person
• The case has a reasonable prospect of success

If the request is for a training session on a topic that the PILS staff have knowledge and experience of, then PILS can offer their services as trainers directly to the NGO or solicitor member.

Alternatively, applications by PILS members for training on public interest issues can be delivered by legal professionals from the PILS Pro Bono Register with specific expertise.

The Register is a pool of legal talent interested in sharing their knowledge with PILS Project members who are working on public interest issues. This group of legal professionals – barristers, solicitors and legal academics – are ready to lend their specific expertise to members free of charge. Here are some examples of the type of collaboration that is possible:

• Legal note: if our members are short on time, the Pro Bono Register can sometimes provide prompt feedback on the public interest law questions they are dealing with.
• Legal opinion: if our members are under less time pressure, they can apply to request a more detailed legal opinion from counsel on the Register. The professionals on the Register have expertise in lots of different legal areas, so there is usually someone well suited to answer your public interest question.
• Legal representation: Pro Bono Register volunteers can offer their services to PILS members and represent them in public interest cases involving human rights or equality concerns.
• In-depth research: Is there a question that your organisation would love the answer to but don’t have the capacity to research it in-house? Many individuals on the Pro Bono Register have indicated that they are willing to dedicate time to legal research – for free. If your organisation or firm have identified a public interest legal issue that you think is ripe for more research, please get in contact with PILS.

For example, in 2016 the Children’s Law Centre and their counterparts the Children’s Rights Alliance were keen to assess the impact that Brexit could have on children’s rights on both sides of the border. Through a collaboration between PILS’s Pro Bono Register and Dublin-based project PILA, law firm A&L Goodbody prepared an in-depth research paper.

• Training: The Pro Bono Register is full of legal expertise, on lots of different issues. And the Register’s volunteers are keen to pass this knowledge on to others. If PILS Project members feel that their work on human rights or equality issues needs additional information on to help it move forward, then a training session could be the answer.

EG: Mencap NI’s staff had a series of questions around the law on mental capacity in NI. In June 2019, a solicitor and a barrister visited Mencap’s centre in Belfast and delivered a training session on the law as it stands, discussed how it works in practice, as well as briefing staff on proposed legislative changes that were due to come into effect in Autumn 2019.

All applications for support through the Pro Bono Register will be considered by the PILS Project Manager. They assess each application against a set of criteria to ensure that the issue falls within PILS remit and that we are the organisation in the best position to support. The criteria assess if:

• The issue is related to human rights and/or equality
• The issue can be solved using the law
• Vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are affected, so pursuing the issue is in the public interest
• Resolving the issue will impact more than just one person
• Someone on the PILS Project’s Pro Bono Register has the necessary skills required to assist

Remember - in response to COVID-19, PILS expanded our usual Pro Bono Register services in 2020. If you are a PILS member, we are offering your organisation the opportunity to ask specific COVID-19 legal questions during a free 1-2-1 call with a specialist solicitor. Click here to learn more!

Our dedicated Litigation Fund is specifically focused on public interest litigation. Our NGO and solicitor members can apply for financial support in covering costs associated with taking a strategic public interest case.

The type of costs that PILS can cover include indemnifying applicants involved in cases to protect them from the other side’s costs, fees charged by the court to lodge papers, travel expenses when travelling long distances outside Northern Ireland to major hearings etc.

(Professional legal fees will only be considered and granted support from PILS in exceptional circumstances.)

The PILS Project is a ‘funder of last resort’ so the decision-making process will include an assessment of other financial options available.

PILS also encourage our members to reduce cost risk during court cases by using mechanisms like Protective Costs Agreements or Protective Costs Orders in suitable cases.

• A Protective Costs Agreement is an agreement, made between the parties to legal proceedings, that limits the costs that will be awarded against one or more parties in a legal case.
• Protective Costs Orders are orders made by a court which limit the costs one or more parties will be asked to pay in public interest cases.

PILS ask that members explore the potential for PCAs/PCOs at the earliest stage of legal proceedings and that they first seek an agreement which protects clients of limited financial means from having to pay any costs at all. If the other party will not accept this, members can then consider negotiating an agreement that caps their client’s costs. PILS staff are happy to talk members through these processes.

So, if someone takes a case that ultimately does not go the way they had hoped, they may not have to pay any costs or will have them capped at a certain amount. PILS will recommend that our members seek an Order were the applicant will have no exposure to costs.

(The court will make a PCO if it considers it fair, just and reasonable to do so. For more detail on the criteria that are taken into consideration and on PCOs in judicial review in general, download the PILS guidance note.)

All applications for direct financial support are considered by the PILS Board. Their decision is final, but the PILS Board may review applications if the circumstances change. The Board assess each application against a set of criteria to ensure that the issue falls within PILS remit and that we are the organisation in the best position to support. The criteria assess if:

• The issue is related to human rights and/or equality
• Vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are affected, so pursuing the issue is in the public interest
• Resolving the issue will impact more than just one person
• The case has a reasonable prospect of success
• Funding is available from another source