With the green light given to Rights of Women to challenge the current legal aid guidelines for domestic violence victims, another battle rages on, this time with the mantle being carried by the Criminal Law sector. The hearing which also took place last Friday saw lawyers calling for a review of the consultation process which led to the current policy on legal aid (and fee cuts), and this is one battle that just got ugly.
For the scrap this morning is not amongst disgruntled families, or charities like Rights of Women who brought their challenge out of concern for the safety of vulnerable people across Britain, but between the MOJ and the legal sector. Quite simply put, the Ministry of Justice has sent out a clear message that fee cuts for legal aid are not going to make up part of the challenge – but the fairness of the consultation process on legal aid, will.
Legal Cheek chose to focus on the MOJ’s recent tweet on the matter, which whilst we think is a little clumsy, says more about the department’s desire to move away from the legal sector’s financial interest in the outcome of this case, than it does its choice of wording.
Everyone understands that the legal profession needs to earn to survive, and that legal aid does offer a lifeline to people in distress. But to turn this case into a tug of war between a bratty child of the State and the Bank of Chris, is as embarrassing as it is demeaning – to the entire profession.
This case should be about access to justice, protection and the preservation of our rights as a democratic people. And that is all.
Researching Reform 
Hi Natasha
Well said. I could not agree more.
Legal aid was established in order to make justice available to all and CG’s recent reforms have severely undermined that. Furthermore, the consultation beforehand was a mockery because vital information was deliberately withheld by the MOJ. The court considered that this piece of sharp practice, was, “so unfair as to result in illegality”.
The legal aid changes affect nearly all of us because when it comes to legal costs there are very few of us that are sufficiently well heeled to be able to access legal assistance without financial help.
The cuts affect victims whether their complaints are proven or not. They affect the accused regardless of whether the accusations are rightful or wrongful. They have the potential to harm anyone that was not born on the right side of the tracks and to cap it all it seems that the changes were ushered in far less than honestly. We have ALL been lied to and misled.
We have recently chatted about the behaviour of politicians. The more we learn, the more it seems that there are simply no boundaries to self or party interest. I think the legal profession and the heavily gendered domestic violence industry do themselves a great disservice when they too squabble about self interest ahead of focussing on how these dishonest and radical changes nibble away at the cornerstones of basic human rights and democracy for everyone.
LikeLike
Hi Stevie, thank you for your thoughts. If this sort of disquiet continues there will be mounting pressure on our government to review the way it operates, and not by them, by us.
LikeLike
“Everyone understands that the legal profession needs to earn to survive, and that legal aid does offer a lifeline to people in distress.” This is true and no one would argue tooo much against it. However, one has to ask – as Jack Straw MP did when he was Home Sec, – why it is it costs each taxpayer £35 to subsidise Legal Aid when other countries (e.g. Sweden, New Zealand) can do it for half that amount and even a fraction of that, e.g. £7 ?
LikeLike
Hi Richard, I think there’s a debate to be had over how we run the legal sector. Whilst everyone should be entitled to earn a living, over the years lawyers have capitalised on the structures in place which forced people to use their services and instead of offering value for money they were able to lock people in and deftly tailor their services so that they could access all of their client’s capital and drain it considerably.
I’m glad this is coming to an end.
LikeLike