The draft Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Legal Aid: Family and Domestic Abuse) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2022, laid last week in Parliament, makes civil legal aid available in two more areas of family law and in certain domestic abuse proceedings and expands immigration legal aid and criminal legal aid for domestic abuse victims. This would make legal aid available for Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) in private family proceedings.
Law Society president Lubna Shuja welcomed the reform but urged that any expansion of legal aid for prospective Special Guardians be on a non-means tested basis. She said: ‘It is often grandparents involved in these cases—who may have limited income—but own their own home or have a small pension, which will exclude them from legal aid, yet they do not have access to the funds necessary to instruct a solicitor to advise and represent them on a private basis.’
