The government’s Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill will reach committee stage on the 11th October 2011. Following the consultation on legal aid earlier this year the government received over 5,000 responses in relation to plans to remove legal aid from large areas of the law.

Even the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, has now flagged up concerns that in family cases large numbers of people will be forced to represent themselves, slowing down the already overburdened courts, and he has agreed to make representations regarding the technical difficulty of the capacity of the courts to draft large numbers of additional orders, a task usually undertaken by solicitors or counsel.

The bill raises serious concerns regarding access to justice, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society. Some concessions have been made in relation to representation in family cases involving domestic abuse - however the bill does not have regard to the wider implications of removing access to justice for those whose circumstances may not involve domestic abuse as defined in the bill but where family relationships are strained and for whom mediation may not be appropriate or available in their area.

The proposed cutbacks will impact on the justice system as a whole. If people have no option but to represent themselves their lack of familiarity with the law and court processes will lead to longer hearing times and thus longer waiting times for court hearing dates in a family justice system already strained to the limit by cutbacks and court closures. Issues include:

  • The announcement in December 2010 that nearly one third of magistrates’ courts (93 out of 300) and 49 county courts will close. Plans to build new courts have also been cancelled.
  • Funding cuts to Citizens Advice and law centres who might otherwise step in to advise litigants in person. The Ministry of Justice’s own impact assessment shows cuts will result in voluntary organisations that provide legal aid will lose 77% of their legal aid income. This comes at a time when CABs report a higher than ever level of requests for help, often arising from the impact of economic cutbacks.
  • Regional variations mean that in urban highly populated areas, where poverty levels are often greatest, delays in obtaining a court decision are often the highest e.g research by childrens’ charity Barnardos found average times of 65 weeks in London compared to 46 weeks in Humber and South Yorkshire, producing a "postcode lottery".

For the limited cases in which legal aid will still be available, if the bill proceeds unamended, the reduction in legal aid rates will reduce by 10% and legal aid work will be even less viable for the now relatively small number of lawyers who currently undertake legal aid work (6% of all qualified solicitors).

According to Law Society figures the average salary for a young legal aid lawyer is £25,000, less than the salary for a trainee solicitor at City firms and less than the average sewage worker. Children may be the hardest hit by cutbacks. Prime minister David Cameron said earlier this year that 'it's high time runaway dads were stigmatised and the full force of shame was heaped upon them', however the removal of legal aid, as proposed by the bill, from private childrens proceedings will lead to more children having no contact with their non-resident parent where that parent does not have access to legal advice and feels unable to represent themselves in what may be a highly emotional situation.

The removal of legal aid from financial disputes following divorce will also lead to single parents being unable to fully pursue financial claims against an absent parent, worsening poverty for single parent families.

Many recent and proposed cutbacks have already hit families hard, such as public sector job losses and benefit reductions. If the bill goes ahead in its current form the families most in need of help will simply have nowhere to turn.

Geraldine Morris is a solicitor and Family Practice Area Champion at LexisNexis