Legal Aid

Senior civil servant Sir Ian Magee is to lead a review into proposals to separate the Criminal Defence Service (“CDS”) and Community Legal Service (“CLS”), as part of a review to ensure that the £2.1 billion currently spent on legal aid every year is “delivering best value for money”. 

He will explore the available options for separation, including ring fencing both CDS and CLS budgets, look at ways to manage the finances of both funds, and identify appropriate delivery models for both the CDS and CLS and their relationship with the MoJ.
Sir Ian, who is due to report back in January 2010, said: “Naturally, I will be consulting a range of interested parties, including the judiciary, the legal profession and the relevant public bodies who play a part in the delivery of legal aid.” 

As the new Legal Year begins, Desmond Browne QC stresses the importance of access to justice for all 

MORE than 50 bar association leaders from around the world have approved a communiqué in support of access to justice. The members of the group, which gathered in London on the occasion of the opening of the legal year, have voiced their concerns about cutbacks in funding legal services at the very time when recession has highlighted the need for access to legal advice and representation, especially for the weak and vulnerable. The bar leaders agreed: 

To renew our commitment to the fundamental principle that no one should be unable to enforce or defend a right for want of the resources necessary to obtain legal advice and representation 

To urge governments to provide adequate funding to ensure access to justice for all, regardless of means, social or ethnic background, gender or the nature of their cause. 

To encourage the members of our professions to continue to undertake fairly remunerated publicly-funded work, as well as pro bono work – recognising that the latter can never operate as a substitute for properly funded legal aid by the state. 

 

To commit ourselves, in the public interest, to work together with governments and state agencies to explore ways in which access to justice can be improved for the benefit of all including taxpayers who fund the justice systems we serve.

Desmond Browne QC, the Chairman of the Bar Council, has criticised proposals to reform legal aid as “cuts in spending, pure and simple”. 

In August, the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”) set out its plans to “rebalance” the £2 billion legal aid budget, in its consultation, Legal Aid: Funding Reforms . These include “rationalising” the rate of pay for defence barristers in Crown Court cases so that they are brought more in line with CPS rates, which are on average 23 per cent less. 

Desmond Browne QC reports on events affecting the Bar and notes the passing of the House of Lords’ Judicial Committee 

GOVERNMENT Ministers have acknowledged that controversial plans to impose fixed fees for legal representation for vulnerable families and children cannot proceed without “further analysis”. Justice Minister Lord Bach has told Parliament that further analysis would be required before it could publish final fee schemes for family legal aid and that more work would be undertaken over the summer to allow for the introduction of the new scheme in April 2010. Recent research by economic consultants Oxera and a report from the House of Commons Justice Committee have provided a stinging critique of the Legal Services Commission’s (‘LSC’) approach to reforming family legal aid, in particular, highlighting the fact that the proposals have been made on “incomplete data, [and] a superficial understanding of the supply of legal services in this area”. The Justice Committee condemned the LSC not only for its “flawed, weak and inflexible” approach but also for its “conclusions first, evidence after” approach to policy-making. 

The Bar Council has published a booklet,  Legal Aid: 60 Years of Public Service by Barristers, marking the 60th anniversary of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949.  The booklet describes how barristers funded by legal aid have acted for some of society’s most vulnerable people over the past 60 years. 

SPEAKING at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks (IBC), Desmond Browne QC, the Chairman of the Bar, called for creative solutions to the current dire predicament of the publicly funded bar, and praised clerks and practice managers for their constructive thinking in this area. He criticised the Government’s continued “efficiency savings”, which create advice deserts for both solicitors and barristers, highlighting the recent King’s College study on family practitioners as evidence of the impact cuts have had on the family bar. 

In his speech, Desmond Browne QC urged the Legal Services Commission to adopt a more sensible approach to negotiations over family fees, as it had previously over Very High Cost Cases. He invited the audience to consider two possible solutions to the issue of access to legal representation, direct access and block contracting, both of which would have a significant impact on chambers. Providing an update to chambers on the Bar Council’s work in relation to Jackson LJ’s review of civil litigation costs, he advised those present to ensure chambers are fully briefed on the latest developments in the debate over conditional fee arrangements and CLAFs. 

“Critical barriers” to accessing civil legal aid still exist while the recession has fuelled demand, Citizens Advice has warned. 

Five awards for outstanding achievements in the field of legal aid were presented at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (“LALY”) awards. The occasion marked  the silver jubilee of the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group (“LAPG”), which organises the event, and the 60th anniversary of the legal aid scheme.