Morale has never been lower in legal aid

No comments

Over the last couple of years covering legal aid for the Gazette, I have got used to writing stories of the doom and gloom facing lawyers and their clients, as fees are cut and bureaucracy increased.But I have not seen the mood as low as it is now, and that mood will only be worsened by the anticipated quarter of a billion cut to the legal aid budget that the justice secretary is expected to propose to the Treasury, as part of the Ministry of Justice’s measures to meet the government’s spending cuts.

At a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid this week, lawyers from across the legal aid spectrum gave accounts of the impact that fixed fees, the Legal Services Commission’s payment regime, and the recent tender exercises have been having – and will continue to have – on their work and ability to stay in business.

The regime, they say, is driving many quality providers away from legal aid, while the payment mechanisms incentivise poor quality providers to take on easy cases and do as little work as possible.

The unanimous message the lawyers wanted to get across to MPs was that the cumulative impact of the whole regime is driving down the quality of service available to clients who are often very vulnerable.

They noted that spending money appropriately on legal aid saves money elsewhere in the system. For instance, the cost to the taxpayer when someone is evicted is estimated at £35,000, while the legal aid fee paid to a lawyer to keep someone in their home is £174.

And they highlighted the false economy of a legal aid system that contracts with poor quality providers, which inevitably costs the public purse more as a consequence of the outcomes, or to correct wrong decisions.

The lawyers present were not fat cats who have got rich by taking speculative cases on behalf of have-a-go clients at public expense, as some critics like to portray them.

They are committed, hard-working people who have dedicated their careers to providing voices to help the voiceless secure justice. And they are angry and deeply saddened that the mismanagement of the legal aid scheme and short-sighted, misguided budget cuts will deny justice to many vulnerable people.

In a system that many say is already pared to the bone, it is hard to see where further savings can possibly be found, other than in very high cost case work or experts’ fees.

There is much speculation that a large chunk of the savings will come from limiting face-to-face advice at the police station – a move that would not only have a severe impact on the viability of many criminal law firms, but also provide scope for numerous miscarriages of justice.

But as the Law Society head of legal aid policy Richard Miller observes, tinkering with the legal aid system is not the way to save money from the legal budget. What is needed is a more strategic look at addressing the things that drive the demands on the budget in the first place.

Surely justice demands that those in power listen and take notice of those in practice. But something tells me there will be more doom and gloom to come.