The Law Society has won its case in the High Court on criminal legal aid funding
Handing down judgment this week, Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Jay held the government’s failure to increase criminal defence solicitors’ legal aid rates by the bare minimum 15% were irrational and that the Lord Chancellor made insufficient enquiries as to the state of the criminal legal aid sector before making them. The 15% minimum increase was recommended in 2021 by the independent Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR), chaired by Lord Bellamy (subsequently appointed as a minister at the Ministry of Justice).
Giving judgment in Law Society of England and Wales v Lord Chancellor [2024] EWHC 155 (Admin), the court commented that the criminal justice system ‘is slowly coming apart at the seams’ and ‘unless there are significant injections of funding in the relatively near future, any prediction along the lines that the system will arrive in due course at a point of collapse is not overly pessimistic’.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: ‘We are delighted the High Court has recognised that then Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab’s decision was irrational.
‘We may have won the court battle, but it’s the public who will lose out in custody suites and courtrooms across the country unless the government takes immediate action to stop the exodus of duty solicitors from the profession. 1,400 duty solicitors have left since 2017 because the work is not financially viable.
‘We are already seeing that there simply aren’t enough solicitors to represent suspects at police stations and magistrates’ courts day and night across the country. ‘This situation will only get worse, with potentially dangerous consequences for society.’
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