The Law Student and Legal Literacy

Tell the District Legal Services Authority. Association with the legal services clinics is what regulation 23 requires, and the Authority can send a para-legal volunteer or depute a lawyer.

What to say

Start with a situation, not a right. Not that Article 39A exists, but that if the police pick somebody up, this is what happens next and this is what the family can do.

Give the three things that are always useful.

One: time matters. Many entitlements are lost by delay, so the first thing to do is to ask somebody quickly.

Two: keep the paper. The notice, the receipt, the card, the message. A very large proportion of the difficulty poor litigants face is the absence of a document that existed once.

Three: there is a free office. The address and hours of the nearest front office under regulation 4 of the 2010 Regulations or clinic under the 2011 Regulations, and that the person needs to take nothing but themselves and an affidavit as to income if the income clause applies, section 13(2).

Then the three chosen topics, each with what to do rather than what the law is.

And take questions, expecting them to be about something else. They usually are, and the honest answer to a question outside the topic is that you will find out and come back, which is also how a student learns.

What not to do

Do not promise an outcome. A student who says the case will be won has done real harm.

Do not give individual legal advice. Explain and refer.

Do not collect people's documents. A student holding somebody's only ration card has created a problem.

Do not photograph people for the college's report without asking, and do not use their names.

Do not describe an entitlement whose enforcement takes four years without saying so. Chapter 650's limit: raising an expectation the system cannot meet is not a kindness.

And do not go once. A camp that is never followed up is an afternoon, which is why regulation 23 speaks of adopting a village rather than visiting one.

What to bring back

The questions asked, written down. This is the most valuable thing produced by a camp and it is almost always thrown away.

Because it is data. Sixty questions from four camps, sorted, is a picture of the legal problems of an area that nobody else has. That is a legal survey, chapter 690, and it is the material for the dissertation MU requires in Semester IV.

And it tells you what the next camp should be about, which is chapter 660's closing point.

A worked example

Six students from a law college in Mumbai adopt a settlement of about three hundred households under regulation 23 of the 2011 Regulations.

Visit one, no teaching at all. They meet a teacher at the municipal school and two women who run a self-help group, and ask what goes wrong for people here. The answers: the water connection, wages not paid by a contractor, and school admission.

Visit two, the camp. One sheet in Marathi with three topics and an address. Twenty minutes on each: what to do about a wage that is not paid and where to complain within what time; what the school must do and what to take with you; and where to take a water complaint. Then questions.

The questions are about something else. Four people ask about a notice from a landlord. Two ask about a death certificate. One asks about a police complaint that was not registered.

Visit three, three weeks later, covers the landlord notice and the certificate, and a para-legal volunteer comes with them.

And what the students take back to college is a list of fifty-one questions, of which nineteen concern documents people cannot obtain from a municipal office.

That last figure is a finding. It is not the law they expected to be asked about, it is measurable, and it is exactly what chapters 680 to 750 do with it.

Quick revision

Regulation 23 of the 2011 Regulations: law students may adopt a village, especially in remote rural areas, and organise legal aid camps in association with the legal services clinics.

Why the student: numbers, language and place, cost, and a high educational return. But a student is not an advocate: explain and refer, do not advise on a case.

Preparing: choose the place with somebody local; ask before you plan; three topics; one sheet in the local language with an address; divide the work, including somebody to sit with people afterwards; and tell the District Legal Services Authority.

What to say: start from a situation; time matters, keep the paper, there is a free office; then the three topics, in terms of what to do.

What not to do: promise an outcome, advise individually, collect documents, photograph or name people, raise expectations without saying how long enforcement takes, or go only once.

What to bring back: the questions asked, written down, because they are the data of a legal survey.

Test yourself

1. What does regulation 23 permit, and on what condition? That law students of law colleges or law universities may adopt a village, especially in remote rural areas, and organise legal aid camps, on the condition that this is done in association with the legal services clinics.

2. Give the three things that are always worth saying at a camp, whatever the topics. That time matters, because many entitlements are lost by delay; that documents should be kept, since a great deal of difficulty comes from the absence of a paper that once existed; and that there is a free office, with its address and hours, to which a person need bring nothing but themselves and, where the income clause applies, an affidavit as to income under section 13(2).

3. Name four things a student must not do at a camp. Promise an outcome; give individual legal advice rather than explaining and referring; collect and keep people's documents; and photograph or name people for the college's report without asking.

4. What is the most valuable thing a camp produces, and why is it usually lost? The questions people actually asked, written down, because sorted across several camps they are a picture of the legal problems of an area that nobody else has, and they determine what the next camp should cover. They are usually lost because the camp is reported by the number of attendees rather than by what was asked.