Decreasing legal aid鈥擶hat does the future hold?

Decreasing legal aid鈥擶hat does the future hold?

According to the latest government figures, half of all law centres and not-for-profit legal advice services in England and Wales have shut down during over the last six years. The latest government figures identified in answers from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to proposed by Richard Burgon, shadow justice secretary, show that the number of local areas offering law centres or agencies offering free legal services have fallen from 94 (2013鈥14) to only 47 (2019鈥20). As well as the drop in physical centres, the MoJ law centre funding through legal aid contracts dropped from 拢12.1m to 拢7.1m. Following these new figures, we question the implication of cuts to legal aid and what the future may hold for access to justice.

What are the implications?

The BBC previously discovered that the depletion of legal aid provisions has inevitably created 鈥渓egal aid deserts鈥 and a 鈥渇ive-fold rise鈥 in people having to represent themselves in court. Due to the introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), aid has been redrawn from areas such as family, welfare, housing and debt.

The reduction of legal aid and access to justice has had many repercussions. In many cases LASPO has resulted in access to justice being harmed for some litigants, such as domestic abuse survivors (see: The cost of reducing access to legal aid), and those who have been discriminated against for reasons such as race, gender or disability鈥攚ho鈥檝e been left to represent themselves in court causing a 鈥淒avid vs Goliath鈥 scenario (see ). The Joint Committee on Human Rights Cuts noted that the cuts to legal aid have made 鈥渢he enforcement of human rights 鈥榮imply unaffordable鈥 for many people in the UK鈥.

老司机午夜福利鈥elivering better access to justice

One of the ways we at 老司机午夜福利 have joined the fight against the ever-decreasing access to justice, is by dedicating ourselves to working with the Civil Justice Council and the members of the free legal advice community. This need to deliver better access to justice is aligned with our central objective to advance the around the world.

At 老司机午夜福利 our work has been focused around the potential for technology and digitisation to produce efficiency and productivity benefits. In some instances, we have looked to develop individual tools that make complex processes more straightforward鈥攂y way of an example, we will shortly be piloting a digital version of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) form with a handful of partner clinics. In others, we have been able to provide access to our practical guidance content (LexisPSL) to enable those working on the front line to advise with confidence. As well as this, we have worked closely with the leaders across the sector to share our expertise on the strategy of how you can deliver a digital development journey to benefit as many as possible.

What does the future hold?

Despite the work of charities and corporations like 老司机午夜福利, it鈥檚 clear that managing the cuts to legal aid is an ongoing process. February 2019 saw the government launch its first review into the impact of legal aid cuts, nearly six years after the introduction of LASPO. The review, which focused on LASPOS original four objectives: making significant savings; discouraging unnecessary litigation; targeting legal aid at those who need it most; and delivering better value for money, concluded that it has been 鈥減artially successful鈥 in reaching those goals. However, there are clearly still issues around representation as identified above. With promises of proposals to 鈥減ilot and evaluate the expansion of legal aid to cover early advice in a specific area of social welfare law鈥 by autumn 2019 and a 鈥渃omprehensive review鈥 of legal aid eligibility by summer 2020, it must be noted that jury is clearly still out on the future of legal aid.

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About the author:

Hannah is one of the Future of Law blog鈥檚 digital and technical editors. She graduated from Northumbria University with a degree in History and Politics and previously freelanced for News UK, before working as a senior news editor for 老司机午夜福利.