Austerity economics killing off civil legal aid

This week’s budget will deliver further cuts to the remnants of our justice system and continue to “kill off” access to civil legal aid, according to legal aid campaigner Patrick Allen.

Writing in NLJ this week, Allen, senior partner at Hodge Jones & Allen pronounces the “Osborne austerity experiment” a failure, and decries the cuts to civil legal aid as a “stain” on our country at the very time when the government is “trumpeting the importance of Magna Carta”.

His views are backed up by figures published last week by the Ministry of Justice which show that the number of new matter starts has fallen year-on-year since April 2013, when the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) came into force (Legal Aid Statistics in England and Wales: January to March 2015). In the year 2012–13 the number of legal help matters started was 573,672, compared with 173,373 in 2013/14, the first full year post-LASPO. The figures for 2014–15 show only 170,617 matters started which means nearly 3,000 fewer people getting help.

Comparing the first quarter of this year with the same quarter prior to LASPO reveals an even starker difference—from 134,501 in 2012–13 to 43,307 for 2014–15.

Meanwhile, legal aid solicitors have continued their outstanding work, as evidenced by this year’s Laly’s (Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards). Marcia Willis-Stewart, managing partner of Birnberg Peirce, and solicitor for the family of Mark Duggan at the inquest into the 2011 police shooting, was named Public Law Solicitor of the year, while Public Law Project received the evening’s top award for Outstanding Achievement for its role in fighting the legal aid cuts with a series of successful judicial reviews.

Criminal Law Solicitors Association’s Bill Waddington and Robin Murray, and London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association’s Jonathan Black and Paul Harris were presented with a special award for their tireless campaigning against reforms to criminal legal aid.