At a LawWorks conference, we expect to hear about the challenges facing the free legal advice centres; it is not often the community is taken by surprise. But there was a ripple of concern when attendees heard from National Energy Action that an estimated 6.6 million people in the UK are in fuel poverty. Last year, the Welsh government estimated that up to 614,000 households in Wales were living in fuel poverty (almost one in every two households).
In the absence of early advice, these issues surface in the advice surgeries of MPs every week, with the situation becoming more acute over the last five years.
LawWorks, in collaboration with law firms and a legal charity, has been conducting an investigation into the levels of unmet legal need evidenced in MPs’ surgeries.
Our joint Mind the Gap report found 75% of casework going through the surgeries related to a legal issue, and 79% of constituents that raised a legal issue had not instructed a lawyer. Unfortunately, government funding support for pro bono advice networks that these people could otherwise approach is falling. A new way forward is needed.
Law firms Hogan Lovells, Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland and Mischon de Reya; LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group); and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Access to Justice have attended almost 300 constituency appointments in 37 MP surgeries. Also, 98 MPs’ caseworkers responded to an online survey.
This report and an earlier 2016 study provide a vital contribution to the ongoing discussions about the legal advice needs of people across England and Wales, showing that MPs continue to face an uphill battle to secure free legal services for constituents. As the media reported, MPs’ surgeries are fast becoming the A&E of legal advice.
A decade after the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, the areas of law eligible for legal aid support have narrowed, spending on civil legal aid cases is lower, and there are fewer law centres and advice agencies in England and Wales.
The knock-on effect of these funding cuts has been less availability of free or affordable legal advice and more so-called ‘legal aid deserts’ – where there is no provision of legal aid-funded advice in particular locations. This has been accompanied by less scope for early intervention to quickly resolve legal issues.
The result is an overall decrease in access to justice for individuals across the country. The pandemic, inflation and rising prices have made this worse, creating a justice system which is inaccessible or unknowable to many.
Some of these people will not have legal recourse, but many of them can and should be helped by early intervention and specialist legal advice so that they can fully understand the rights and protections afforded to them. We have always known that lack of access to justice primarily affects the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our society. The result is that their rights across the whole gamut of policy areas – housing, immigration, education, health or energy – are not being protected by the justice system.
The situation is exacerbated when, as now, the advice sector and legal charities are chronically underfunded. Most parliamentary caseworkers who responded to the online Mind the Gap survey (56%) said that the organisations providing legal advice within their constituencies did not have sufficient capacity to deal with their constituents’ legal problems. As pro bono clinics and legal aid support become more challenging, the Mind the Gap report found MPs and their caseworkers now play a critical role in facilitating access to justice.
Several caseworkers said they could not refer on matters or that law centres were closing, and that support for Citizens’ Advice could not be relied upon alone. ‘We have no free law centre and Citizens’ Advice is mainly by phone and can’t help with drafting issues,’ one said. Most crises that people face have a legal element. We regularly have pro bono legal clinics that support people with filling in forms. This is particularly needed when so many people are digitally excluded because they cannot afford broadband.
All this reflects a known truth: there is a large and growing gap between the financial needs of the advice sector and the amount of money available. For over a decade, LawWorks received direct funding from the Ministry of Justice to maintain its network of pro bono clinics, providing support and developing the network throughout England and Wales.
These clinics leverage the expertise of pro bono solicitors who volunteer time to help people in legal need. However, LawWorks was recently notified that its application for continued MoJ funding through the Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support grant has been rejected.
As the infrastructure body which supports, coordinates and develops pro bono advice clinics throughout England and Wales, LawWorks has been supported by the government since the cuts to legal aid. For many advice organisations, the LawWorks Clinics Network is the only sign-posting resource available to them if they are unable to help a client. Often, it is also their first port of call when looking to develop new pro bono legal resources to respond directly to the challenges that individuals in their local communities are facing. At a time of unprecedented challenge for people who cannot afford a lawyer, the decision to stop funding this service appears to run counter to the need for efficiency and collaboration in an often-fractured world of free legal advice.
In a policy space that has seen multiple justice secretaries over recent years, we urge government, all political parties and all MPs to take seriously the need for a sustainable advice sector in order to protect their constituents’ rights. If nothing else, it is in their interest to do so.
Yasmin Waljee is an international pro bono partner at Hogan Lovells, London
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