The government’s search for savings from the legal aid system has not ceased. Last month saw the Ministry of Justice announce its intention to bring forward its plans to introduce competitive tendering for criminal legal aid services (see page 4 of this issue). Much will hinge on how these tenders are designed. A revamping of the last government’s plans to tender work in magistrates’ courts and police stations is unlikely to bring any significant reductions in cost, but risks damaging beyond repair the network of small and medium firms which underpin the criminal defence system.

It has been a depressing few months as civil legal aid providers have prepared for the implementation of the LASPO Act. Many practitioners have told LAG about the redundancies firms and not for profit organisations are being forced to make. Knowledge, skills and experience are being lost from publicly funded legal work (see page 6 of this issue). This represents a terrible waste of human resources and a tragic loss for those members of the public who will no longer be able to obtain the legal assistance they need. This is at a time when the demand for advice is growing because of the economic downturn.

Civil legal aid has never been a perfect system. It has often been mired in unnecessary bureaucracy and its scope has never met the aspirations of practitioners and other interest groups campaigning for greater access to justice. At least until this month, it could be said that, despite its faults, civil legal aid met the basic legal needs of poor people and other disadvantaged groups. Post-the LASPO Act, we are left picking up the pieces to salvage what we can and looking to the future.

It will be some time before the parameters of what is covered by the new system are set. The new exceptional cases provisions need to be tested and some precedents, which could widen what is covered by civil legal aid, might be set. LAG was pleased to learn of the Law Society and Public Law Project partnership as this will encourage practitioners to use the rules to assist their clients. Challenges to the legislation through the European Court of Human Rights are also possible, though these would take some time to work through the system.

One of the most important changes to the original proposals for legal aid put before parliament by the government was their concession that areas of law could be brought back into scope without new primary legislation. There remains widespread concern about the rules around qualifying for legal aid in domestic violence cases. LAG fears that, as they are currently drafted, these will have tragic consequences (see page 4 of this issue). We must, therefore, must keep up the pressure on the government to change them as soon as possible. An adjustment to the rules to allow for the costs of gathering evidence from third parties to prove that a client qualifies for legal aid would seem an obvious solution to this problem. For other areas of work, such as welfare benefits, securing a return to scope in all likelihood is not possible in the near future; however, legal advice in these cases needs to be examined, which is something that the Low Commission is looking at (see page 16 of this issue).

The LASPO Act should not be seen as the last word on access to justice policy. Its impact is only just beginning to be felt, but over the coming year the cuts introduced by the legislation will undoubtedly lead to greater costs in the justice system and misery for clients. We must continue to campaign by highlighting the damage the LASPO Act is causing and building the case for change: for everyone who cares about justice, doing nothing is not an option.