Government plans to introduce a mandatory telephone gateway to the civil legal aid scheme are facing a legal challenge which is supported by The Law Society. The Public Law Project, acting on behalf of ten specialist legal aid firms, has issued an application for permission to apply for a judicial review of the plan.

The Ministry of Justice is proposing to make publicly funded legal advice in community care law accessible solely through a mandatory single telephone gateway.

This will mean that all clients seeking publicly funded legal advice will initially have to telephone an adviser to determine whether they are eligible for legal aid; and if they are, whether they should be entitled to receive advice face-to-face rather than over the telephone.

The calls will be handled by operators who are not legally qualified.

Community care lawyers argue that their cases involve a complex and specialist area of social welfare law, concerning the provision of health and social care services to clients with disabilities, the elderly, the ill and those with caring needs and responsibilities.

They claim that many clients, particularly those with language and learning difficulties, who have problems communicating by phone, will be prevented from accessing the legal aid scheme and denied access to justice.

Even where clients are able to access the telephone gateway, they are likely to face problems demonstrating their need for face-to-face advice, it will be argued.

The PLP claims that the government failed to properly consider the impact of its decision on the vulnerable groups who are most likely to require advice and assistance in community care law, and that including this category of law within the telephone gateway pilot is irrational.

PLP solicitor Jo Hickman said: ‘Our clients are specialist lawyers who are acting in the interests of those who will be at risk if this proposal is implemented.

‘Their concern is that the consequence of this decision will be to limit meaningful access to justice for some of the most vulnerable individuals in society. PLP shares this concern.’

The challenge is supported by a number of charities, including Mind, Liberty and Sense, and by the Law Society.

Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said the case for proceeding with the gateway plan was all but destroyed when the claimed savings from the move were reduced from £60m in the MoJ November 2010 impact assessment, to £2 million in the June 2011 document.

He said: 'Spending money defending this case to save £2m seems disproportionate. Analysis of the impact assessment suggests that even now, the MoJ is probably significantly underestimating both the cost of implementing the service and the barriers it will place in the way of vulnerable clients.

'Indeed, the available research indicates that the move to telephone advice may well stop a significant number of people from getting advice at all, and deliver worse outcomes for those who do manage to access the service.

'We urge the government to reconsider whether in the light of the evidence now available, it makes any sense to proceed with this proposal.'