Family lawyers react to legal aid review

Family lawyers have given a cautious welcome to the government’s legal aid review but called for more to be done to reverse the damage of the cuts.

Since LASPO (the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012) came into force in April 2013, cutting £350m from legal aid funding each year from 2013 as well as removing legal aid from private family law. There has been a steep rise in the number of litigants in person since with consequential delays in the family courts.

The post-implementation review of LASPO, published this week by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) pledges a further £8m towards technological solutions and £3m to help litigants in person. It highlights the importance of early intervention to nip problems in the bud before they spiral, and commits to extending legal aid to special guardianship orders in private family law and reviewing the legal aid means test.

Jo Edwards, chair of family lawyers’ group Resolution’s Family Law Group, said she welcomed certain aspects of the review but warned that the government’s commitments have to be backed up by meaningful funding.

‘Without legal advice, couples and individuals are less likely to resolve matters away from the court, and more likely to face lengthy delays within a creaking court system,’ she said.

‘If government is serious about reducing conflict and stress for couples and families in dispute, it needs to go further and ensure that everyone who needs it has access to early legal advice, to enable them to make informed choices about their options. These choices have a fundamental long-term impact on families and children, and it is vital that people are properly supported—not just for those individuals, but for society as a whole.’

Family law solicitor and NLJ columnist David Burrows said the review ‘may be far too little, but it is never too late.

‘One of the simplest ways to help and to save money, is to recognise that by funding cases on matrimonial property the government is providing a legal aid loan at an excellent rate of interest for the tax-payer. And the on-cost: joined up thinking proposedrecently in NLJ by Sir Geoffrey Bindman is basic to legal aid. These two simple ways of saving must be understood and then addressed by the Lord Chancellor.’