Insomnia sometimes has its advantages. Many years ago as a newly qualified, hungry, ambitious lawyer, my sleep pattern was destroyed by nightly visits to police stations to assist clients in custody.
It was therefore fortuitous that at 1am on 23 November I happened upon BBC Parliament. My good fortune was to see shadow justice minister Lord Bach deliver a speech to the House of Lords that deserved to be delivered to the nation. Lord Bach’s critique of the legal aid bill hit the mark. Apart from denouncing some of the Imprisonment for Public Protection sentencing proposals and the proposed telephone gateway for community care clients, he attacked the government’s intentions to savage legal advice for debt, welfare benefits and housing. He spelt out the message of how the potential loss of job, home or family can lead to a downward spiral, costing the country many times the likely savings achieved by the proposed cuts in legal aid.
There is nothing new in the message that early advice by skilled legal advisers can avoid substantial future cost. It is of concern that the message still needs to be delivered.
The judiciary is already concerned about the ever-increasing growth of self-representing clients. The misconception that a client with a welfare benefits problem can self-represent was used as an example by Lord Bach in highlighting the Department for Work and Pensions guidance that runs to some 9,000 pages. It is probably the most regulation-bound area of law imaginable.
Lord Bach’s message of early advice needs to cut through the ministerial preciousness of government departments to bring about, at long last, some clear, joined-up thinking.
Roy Morgan, Morgans Solicitors, Cardiff
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