A Yorkshire firm is preparing to enter the world of legal aid – bucking a long-standing trend of providers quitting the sector due to poor remuneration.
Truth Legal, which has offices in Harrogate, Hull and Leeds, will begin offering services under a Legal Aid Agency contract next month.
Solicitor Louis MacWilliam, one of the firm’s three co-owners, told the Gazette the firm already provides privately paid immigration services, such as applications for family members and helping businesses sponsor overseas workers. However, the firm felt there was a gap within the legal aid sector that urgently needed filling.
According to Law Society analysis of the government’s provider directory and Office for National Statistics data, 63% of the population in England and Wales do not have access to an immigration and asylum legal aid provider. The whole of Yorkshire and the Humber has scant provision.
MacWilliam said: ‘You have got asylum laws that are highly politicised and ever more complex. But firms are fleeing from providing legal aid because there is not enough money in it. There is a massive demand for it but very few people providing it.’
The government’s own research has shown that firms doing legal aid work break even at best.
MacWilliam said Truth Legal will not risk its long-term health by taking on too many cases. Instead, the firm will take on a select number ‘but run them to the nth degree, leaving no stone unturned, taking [cases] to the highest court if necessary. That way we can make a big impact with a small cohort while preserving financial viability’, MacWilliam said.
The firm was shocked by the recent wave of riots that saw immigration lawyers fear for their safety. MacWilliam said the firm refused to be intimidated by the far-right and wants to ensure asylum seekers’ rights are protected.
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