The Law Society has issued its own manifesto for the election, challenging the political parties to prioritise justice in their plans for government
Its wish list includes the reinstatement of legal aid for early advice in housing and family law to prevent cases from escalating into much bigger problems. It also wants to increase the civil legal aid means test threshold and remove the capital test for those on income-related benefits so that more people can access legal aid.
On the criminal law side, it urges whoever forms a government to conduct an independent economic review of the long-term viability of criminal legal aid, raise legal aid fees in real terms and guarantee no future real terms cuts. Finally, it wants a relationship with the EU that allows lawyers to practise and base themselves in the EU, perhaps through a legally binding association agreement.
Simon Davis, Law Society President, said: ‘Successive governments have stripped back provision of legal aid and left our justice system in a dangerously under-funded state.’
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