The government’s decision to remove guaranteed legal aid for judicial review was unlawful, the High Court has held.
The Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No 3) Regulations 2014, which came into force last April, removed legal aid for judicial review challenges unless and until permission was granted by the court.
Opponents argued that this had a “chilling effect” on potential applications, making it difficult for people to find lawyers willing to take the risk of running a case, and limiting the ability of members of the public to hold government to account.
The Lord Chancellor argued that the Regulations gave lawyers an incentive only to bring cases that were likely to succeed.
However, the court held there was no rational link between the Regulations and the Lord Chancellor’s aim.
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