National firm Duncan Lewis is taking the government to court over legal aid fees for immigration and asylum work - claiming the lord chancellor is failing to fulfil his statutory duty to secure legal aid for the vulnerable individuals eligible for it but struggling to find a lawyer.
Duncan Lewis filed a claim in the High Court last Friday challenging the failure to raise legal aid rates for ‘controlled work’ or take any other action to address problems in provision in a timely and effective way.
The firm says a 48% real-terms cut in rates since 1996 - when fees were last increased - has left thousands of vulnerable people eligible for legal aid, such as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, victims of domestic and sexual violence, and torture and trafficking victims, struggling to find a lawyer to represent them in asylum or other matters of ‘life or death’ importance. There was a 159% increase in the number of asylum applications made between 2019 and 2023, but only a 32% increase in the number of matters opened by civil legal aid providers.
Jeremy Bloom, lead solicitor at Duncan Lewis, said: ‘It is heartbreaking for us, but over the last five years we have had to make massive reductions in the number of legal aid asylum claims and appeals that we take on. Legal aid will never be wildly profitable, and that’s ok. But providers of legal aid cannot continue taking on work that causes financial losses. It is not sustainable, and the losers are the people who need representation.’
Duncan Lewis calculated an average annual loss of £777,038 between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2023 on controlled work immigration and asylum matters, based on the fees recovered for the work compared with the costs to the firm of undertaking the work, such as salaries, overheads and supervision. This equates to an average loss per matter of around £251. Between April 2014 and March 2018, the firm opened an average of around 4,000 matters per year. Last year, it was around 800.
Last year the government embarked on a major civil legal aid review, which is looking at immigration and asylum work. A 'green paper' is supposed to be published this summer, but there are fears the election has kicked the review into the long grass.
Bloom noted that any final decisions would only be made following consultation and no commitment has been given to increase fees. 'Yet another review is too little too late. Action needs to be taken urgently, otherwise those who need it the most will continue to be unable to find lawyers,' he said.
The judicial review claim is supported by witness evidence from Wilson Solicitors, Care4Calais and Women Against Rape.
Duncan Lewis's team comprises Bloom, Toufique Hossain, Nina Kamp and Elizabeth Cole, who have instructed Matrix Chambers' Chris Buttler KC, Eleanor Mitchell and Jack Boswell.
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