The Bar’s response to the call for evidence for the government’s Review of Civil Legal Aid, which closed in February, highlighted an urgent need for increased investment in civil areas such as family, immigration and housing. It listed ‘significant amounts of unpaid work’ carried out by family barristers, such as additional conferences, the drafting of position statements, chronologies and written questions, due to the fee structure not keeping pace with changes in the work required.
The Bar urged the government to remove the means test for survivors of domestic abuse and reiterated its call for a reversal of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 cuts.
Townend said low fee income, ‘coupled with delayed payments, increasing demands for unpaid work, and the difficult nature of cases,’ was causing practitioners to leave legal aid work.
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