According to Bolt Burdon Kemp, 80% of Britons had access to free or affordable legal aid in 1949. By 2007, this figure had fallen to 27%, and when new austerity measures came into effect in 2013, this figure fell further. Not surprisingly, the UK`s poorest citizens are among the hardest hit by legal aid cuts. When legal aid was introduced in Britain in the 1940s as part of the new post-war welfare state, it was available to about 80% of the population. Opponents of comprehensive legal aid argue that such a system is ultimately prohibitive and encourages excessive litigation. However, the current situation, with a shortage of lawyers and very limited resources for legal aid, is exactly the opposite. All these changes are likely to have serious consequences for the number of ongoing training contracts for legal aid, especially since public subsidies to finance these contracts were abolished in 2010. Yet a lawyer at the Law Center explained that apprentices will always be in demand because they “represent a relatively cheap way to increase productivity.” It`s also likely that companies will increasingly rely on low-paid paralegals – a recently qualified lawyer from a legal consultancy firm warned that “many companies throw a carrot at people and say, `Come as a paralegal and if we love you, we`ll give you an apprenticeship contract.` But companies don`t necessarily offer contracts as quickly as you`d hope. A paralegal who started at the same time as me just received an apprenticeship contract. For those who cannot obtain representation in civil matters, it is unlikely that the CLAR, which focuses exclusively on legal aid in criminal matters, will provide any redress.
Current Justice Secretary Dominic Raab wrote in response to MPs: “Although we have not launched a formal review of civil legal aid, we have carefully reviewed the system,” promising that the government would begin gathering evidence of alternative approaches to civil legal aid next year. Officials said it was “not possible to say exactly how many people are no longer eligible and otherwise could have done so.” However, they found that the ratio of domestic violence cases receiving legal aid decreased from 0.75 in 2012-13 to 0.5 in 2020-2021 compared to those without legal aid. “The amount the UK government spends on prisons is obscene, especially when compared to a decade of cuts to legal aid and the budgets of courts, prosecutors, probation services and many other parts of the justice system. These investments are essential to a healthy justice system that can provide better access to justice for all. As in most areas, the legal system is still recovering from the pandemic, and while some courts have quickly adapted to an online environment, the backlog has unfortunately continued to grow. We cannot blame the pandemic for all the problems of the justice system, which was already struggling before March 2020. The judiciary has sought to recover from the legal aid cuts announced in 2013, which deprived millions of people of access to justice, leading to “deserts” of care in England and Wales. The Welsh Government`s Single Advisory Fund supports people in need of advice and can help to be represented in court, but does not replace legal aid. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (OSISAA) was enacted in 2012 amid some controversy.
Among other measures, the law gave the government direct control over the funding of legal aid and almost completely eliminated funding for civil legal aid. Subsequent cuts to the Department of Justice`s budget were the largest of any department between 2010 and 2020. In 2016, Rights of Women successfully challenged regulations that determined the type of evidence women had to present to prove abuse. However, the burden placed on women by cuts to legal aid remains significant. In its report, the ECHR highlighted the exclusion of labour law from legal aid in civil matters. Research by the ECHR showed that more than 10% of mothers surveyed said they quit their jobs either because they had been laid off or laid off, or because they felt they had no choice but to leave. These women were denied access to legal aid to fight their former employers for gender discrimination. Members of households with disposable incomes of more than £3,000 per month are no longer eligible for legal aid as they should be able to finance their own affairs.
Prisoners who are not satisfied with their treatment also no longer receive legal aid, as Grayling argues they should use the prison complaints system. Newly arrived migrants must prove they have been legally resident in the UK for at least one year in order to obtain legal assistance, although asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking are now exempt from testing following widespread protests. The logic is that only people with close ties to the UK should benefit from its services, but campaigners have pointed out that the changes could put vulnerable immigrants and temporary visa holders in a precarious position. They could also shift more spending to local authorities, which will have to fund legal aid for homeless migrants and migrant children. The Law on Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders was introduced in May 2012 and aimed to set capital and income limits for civil legal aid applicants. The lack of lawyers has also led to a sharp increase in the number of claimants representing themselves in court without sufficient legal knowledge. In a 2015 ruling, Lord Justice Aikens described how “the court was without legal counsel and had to spend time researching the law itself,” which resulted in lengthy court proceedings and “a serious risk that the court will make erroneous and therefore unfair decisions.” The aim of these amendments is to significantly reduce the Legal Aid Act by introducing new restrictions on eligible groups, the cases in which they may be used and the remuneration of lawyers. The situation is exacerbated by a huge backlog of court cases following the suspension of court proceedings during the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, potentially innocent defendants who cannot afford their own representation have been detained and face reduced availability of publicly funded lawyers. Pressure is mounting on the UK government to publish a long-delayed review of the state of legal aid in England and Wales as the industry grapples with the impact of Covid-related funding cuts and backlogs in court. Large areas of civil law have been removed from the scope of legal aid.