Some 46% of the public said they don’t understand the system or how to go about finding advice while 51% said there are too many barriers to legal aid funding, according to research published by the firm this month, ‘Inequality within Britain’s legal aid funding system’. View the research here.
Cuts to legal aid, through reductions in fees as well as by LASPO (the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012) which pulled whole areas out of scope, has led to a reduction in legal aid firms, with firms giving up legal aid work or merging with other firms. In 2011-12, there were 4,257 firms and organisations providing legal aid work, reducing to 2,818 in 2018 and 2,900 today.
Law Society vice president Lubna Shuja said: ‘Many people, particularly those who are living below the poverty line, are regularly denied legal aid by a means test which is too stringent.
‘They face serious and life changing legal issues such as in housing, employment and family law with no recourse to legal advice due to legal aid cuts. The legal aid system needs proper funding, otherwise there will continue to be inequalities between those who can afford to access legal support and those who cannot.’
