There are several reasons why a particular region may incur high costs for legal aid. First, the region may have a high percentage of legal aid providers, such as law firms or not-for-profit organizations. Second, the types of cases in the region may be more likely to fall within the limited scope of legal aid after the LASPO came into force in 2013. Cases still covered by legal aid include environmental law, mental health law, asylum, neonatal clinical neglect, child protection, deportation and judicial review. Third, and perhaps most important, a given region is likely to have higher expenditures on legal aid if it has a high percentage of financially disadvantaged people. Large areas of civil law have been removed from the scope of legal aid. All family law matters that do not involve domestic violence are no longer covered, although payments may be made to assist with mediation. Immigration cases are only covered when it concerns asylum applications, human rights issues or domestic violence. Social benefits, debt and housing are also not eligible, unless there is a direct risk of homelessness. Criminal cases remain limited and means-tested, and LASPO`s initial proposal to withdraw the client`s choice of lawyer`s assignment has been rescinded. In his role as chair of the committee earlier this year, Neill said, “Efforts to reduce the costs of the Legal Aid Act have eroded important parts of the justice system.
Fixed fees cannot cover the costs of complex cases, the number of people receiving legal aid is decreasing, and legal services are struggling to keep up. There is no shortage of voices mocking the need for more research – from the majestic thunder of the NAO to the high-pitched creak of academics. From the first: “The Department of Justice is on track to significantly and quickly reduce its spending on civil legal aid. However, it has been slower to think about how and why people apply for civil legal aid; the amount of additional costs incurred by the Department as a result of the choice of individuals to represent themselves; and the impact on the ability and willingness of providers to provide legal services for fees paid. Without this understanding, it cannot be said that the Ministry`s implementation of civil legal aid reforms has achieved value for money for all taxpayers” (NAO 2014). As an example: “There was general agreement in the literature that counselling leads to positive outcomes for clients and their households. However, almost all evidence came from `grey literature`, i.e. informally published articles in which the quality of evidence was generally low. For example, only a handful of reports were able to provide detailed data information, a clear and robust methodology, and a solid analysis from which they draw their conclusions. An obvious problem throughout the literature has been the lack of a consistent or generally accepted measure of outcome or quality” (Cookson and Mold 2014). While the CLAR focuses on criminal legal aid, the impact of the LAPSO Act on civil legal aid has remained more under the radar.
The law limits the availability of state-funded defense to very limited cases involving health, employment, family law, housing, immigration, education, and social assistance. This has led to the emergence of what the Law Society calls “legal aid deserts”, leaving large areas of England and Wales without affordable legal advice or representation for citizens in civil matters. All these changes are likely to have serious consequences for the number of ongoing training contracts for legal aid, especially since public subsidies to finance these contracts were abolished in 2010. Yet a lawyer at the Law Center explained that apprentices will always be in demand because they “represent a relatively cheap way to increase productivity.” It`s also likely that companies will increasingly rely on low-paid paralegals – a recently qualified lawyer from a legal consultancy firm warned that “many companies throw a carrot at people and say, `Come as a paralegal and if we love you, we`ll give you an apprenticeship contract.` But companies don`t necessarily offer contracts as quickly as you`d hope. A paralegal who started at the same time as me just received an apprenticeship contract. When legal aid was introduced in Britain in the 1940s as part of the new post-war welfare state, it was available to about 80% of the population. Opponents of comprehensive legal aid argue that such a system is ultimately prohibitive and encourages excessive litigation. However, the current situation, with a shortage of lawyers and very limited resources for legal aid, is exactly the opposite. The Department should better understand the challenges faced by civil legal aid providers and the provision of support across the country. It should use this better understanding to ensure the sustainability of the market and coverage across the country.
(NAO 2014, paragraph 17) National Court of Auditors (NAO). 2014. “Implementation of Civil Legal Aid Reforms”. www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Implementing-reforms-to-civil-legal-aid1.pdf. Legal aid was introduced “for those with limited resources and resources, so that no one is financially incapable of making a fair and reasonable claim or defending legal action”. In addition to the welfare state, there was the idea that people should use a properly funded legal advice system in order to assert their social rights in court if necessary. In the decades since its introduction, the scope of legal aid was extended to other areas of civil law before criminal cases began to be included in the 1960s. For obvious reasons, “official” or (allegedly) “neutral” sources of information – such as the reports of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee or the Court of Auditors – have been deliberately privileged over the claims of suppliers or former suppliers. However, it is impossible to find objective and concrete statistics from any source. However, it should be noted that a flood of studies, mainly from the consulting sector in this country and from the legal sector internationally, claim sufficient methods to allow a reasonable calculation. Citizens Advice, for example, calculated the return per pound spent on legal aid for housing advice at £2.34 (Citizens Advice 2010). Regarding the consequences of the cuts in LASPO, we take the figures from the Court of Auditors` report as a definitive statement: since the beginning of April 2013, legal aid has been managed by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), which is part of the Ministry of Justice and is subject to strict state control.
The AAL replaces the Commission des services juridiques (LSC), which enjoyed greater independence thanks to its status as a non-ministerial public body (or quango). The Fabian Society has recommended a new right to adequate legal assistance at no cost to address some of these issues. This would be accompanied by a set of guiding principles, which would include promoting public law education and ensuring that citizens apply the law. We also believe that the Legal Aid Agency – which manages the programme as an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice – should be replaced by a body independent of the government. Greater autonomy would mean that it would be better able to withstand political pressure. Prior to the Justice Committee`s inquiry, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (Cilex) also warned that “legal aid services are now on the brink of collapse and only the immediate resumption of funding can save them.” .
