Published: October 31st 2011 - at 4:56 pmWill Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill?
contribution by Will Horwitz
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill returns reaches Report stage in the Commons this week.
And before the eye-catching business of knife crime sentences and no-win-no-fee solicitors comes up on Tuesday and Wednesday, we get legal aid and the possibility of a Lib Dem rebellion.
Public opposition to the legal aid changes has crystallised around a few issues:
- that victims of domestic violence will be denied legal help with civil cases against abusers;
- the danger, particularly for disabled people, of withdrawing all legal help with welfare benefits just as the system undergoes fundamental reform;
- the loss of help for victims of clinical negligence.
A group of amendments put by Liberal Democrat back benchers, which cover benefits and clinical negligence amongst other issues, should lead to a good debate and if put to a vote will test the resolve of several Lib Dem and Conservative MPs who have locally and publicly stated their opposition to many of these aspects of the Bill (here are just four) .
Also keep an eye out for government announcing more details of the £20m fund for the not-for-profit advice sector, which Ken Clarke unveiled (with no detail) at the Bill’s last appearance before the whole house.
This is a Big Society danger for government: social welfare advice – on issues like benefits, debt, housing, and employment – is taking a particularly bad hit, and is mostly delivered by much-cherished charities such as Citizens Advice Bureaux and Law Centres.
The £20m is government’s defence but from what we know so far is mostly a smokescreen – it was supposed to be spent this financial year (the legal aid cuts don’t even come in until next) and is so far only a one off.
That’s why details of the cross government ‘review’ that was supposed to accompany the fund will be vital – a long term plan for the sector, which has traditionally scraped together funding from different government departments with little coordination, is going to be more important in the long run than a one-off £20m.
Finally, watch out for practical difficulties to emerge as an already hugely expensive and cumbersome system for administering legal aid (costing £126m a year) struggles to deal with small numbers of cases still eligible.
Justice for All found that in a third of the country there will be so few housing and debt cases left that it won’t be worthwhile employing one full-time advisor.
The Law Society and others have regularly pointed out that government could make the savings they want without restricting access to legal help, by cutting administration costs and inefficiencies elsewhere in the system.
Hopes aren’t high that government will concede this anytime soon, but practical delivery issues might force them to try something new eventually.
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Will Horwitz is part of the Justice for All campaign
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Reader comments
An important aspect to these cuts is also Solicitors renumeration. Contrary to the widely held view that Solicitor’s are all rolling in it, the Legal Aid Lawyer has been sytematically subject to reduction in rates over a number of years and the impostion of terms where the Solicitor increasingly are obliged to take financial risks and potentially carry substantial loses on a case by case basis.In consequence ,running a high street practice is becoming financially untenable ,particularly in London, such that the notion that Legal Aid will be universally available , even with its limited scope, will be highly questionable. Anything left on the high street will be cheap and not so chearful with the increasing need for proper advice going largely unheeded.
…And it will clog up the courts with litigants in person.
Silly lie dems. They have joined forces with the reactionaries. The brown shirts don’t believe in justice for the little people. All tory policy is aimed at helping the elites, and the lie dems have decided to join them.
Clegg has decided to sacrifice his party just so that he can play at being deputy prime minister. A meaningless job that carries no kudos at all. Justice will only be for the rich elites.
As one of them, I hope they rebel. Worst mistake we made, getting involved.
Labour were going to (and for a large part, did) axe a stupendous amount of Legal Aid. Law was once almost as much a right to the working class as it was to the upper middle. It has not been so for a very long time.
There are utter travesties of justice being done upon the vulnerable even now. Local Authorities who won’t respond to mere mortals but only to solicitors saying exactly the same thing (that’ll be £2000 please, in one case). Now even the poorest can’t fight back effectively, so backroom bureaucrats will view themselves as above the law.
What is going on is not far from GW Bush’s Tort Reform when he was Governor of Texas. This situation, combined with the current near impossibility of sacking civil servants, will allow the incompetents in the regional offices of Whitehall and officers of our councils to run completely amok.
If the Lib Dems were to come out of the Coalition then it would not be a sad day for our party or for the country. Unless the Barmy Party get a clear majority that is…
You’re right – this is a truly awful bill – amazingly, it is a piece of legislation that will reduce the quality of legal representation available in this country, and yet, seeks to introduce a mandatory life sentence for offenders who repeat crimes of serious violence or sex, which is one of the most reactionary and oppressive pieces of legislation ever to appear on our statute books – yet, AMAZINGLY, the Lib-Dems, who were supposed to there to counter this type of nonsense have done absolutely nothing to prevent it.
I review the Bill here: http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/2011/10/the-legal-aid-bill-another-slap-in-the-face-for-justice/
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
- Lisa Chalkley
Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? http://t.co/tFuG8pIY
- Issy
Questions to which the answer is 'no', #94: http://t.co/dwdFQtHM #qtwtain #laspo
- 2wolves
Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? http://t.co/tFuG8pIY
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Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? http://t.co/tFuG8pIY
- thelawmap
Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/Z8KXDo7d via @libcon
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#QTWTAIN Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/5WXt5k1v via @libcon
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- Pat Raven
Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? http://t.co/tFuG8pIY
- Tracy Young
Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? http://t.co/tFuG8pIY
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Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? http://t.co/tFuG8pIY
- Richard Shrubb
Will Libdems salvage something from this awful Legal Aid bill? | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/3aFXuM0G via @libcon
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