A link to some more stuff I said elsewhere on the topic of legal aid reform, and more importantly to what some other people (including a not-so-anonymous blogger) said about legal aid reform: Falling on deaf ears, By Jean-Yves Gilg, Giles Peaker, Lucy Reed & Juliette Frangos
Tag Archives: access to justice
Trying To End Things
I’ve had two very different articles published today, both about attempts to end things:
- an article on the bringing to a close of children proceedings through the making of orders under s91(14) Children Act 1989: Section 91(14) Orders – A Never Ending Story? (Family Law Week), and
- an article on the attempt to bring an end to civil legal aid by the government: Ignore the warnings about legal aid changes and risk meltdown in courts (Guardian)
Those responsible for the latter could do to take a leaf out of the former: draconian powers, not to be used summarily…sadly we read today that the Government is planning to fast track the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill – second reading on Weds next week. That is really, really shoddy: politics at its worst.
Summary of Legal Aid Reforms to Family Law
Nearly Legal has provided an excellent summary of the legal aid reforms in respect of housing and other areas of law: Ask not for whom the bill tolls. Due to other commitments I have not been able to put together a full analysis of the Bill insofar as is relates to family law. That will follow, but here is a summary of the position (largely borrowed from someone else I’m afraid).
Headlines: The confirmation of the removal of large numbers of private law cases from scope of legal aid, and of the reduction of family fees by 10% (on top of the FAS cuts implemented in May).
The Bill
Part 1 of the Bill itself is dedicated to Legal Aid (Clauses 1-40). The Bill contains provisions to abolish the LSC and transfer the day-to-day administration of legal aid to the Lord Chancellor. In practice, this will be done by civil servants in an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. However, decisions on legal aid in individual cases will be taken by a statutory office holder: a civil servant designated by the Lord Chancellor as the Director of Legal Aid Casework. The Lord Chancellor will have no power to direct or issue guidance to the Director in relation to individual cases
There are empowering sections for the Lord Chancellor on legal aid issues, there is some provision about funding legal services and eligibility for legal aid (Clause 20). By Clause 36 the Legal Services Commission is abolished.
Clause 9 is an important provision for the payment of legal aid for ‘exceptional cases’ (i.e. where failure to do so would be a breach of the individual’s Convention rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998). It is clear from the tenor of the response paper that the Government anticipate that this will be a narrow category, albeit with some initial boundary testing via JR.
In Part 2 of the Bill there is provision (Clause 45) for a new section 22ZA of the MCA 1973 for the payment of a sum to enable the other party to obtain legal services in proceedings for divorce, nullity of marriage or judicial separation. Clause 22ZB sets out the matters to which the court should have regard in a legal services order.
Schedule 1 sets out the categories of cases in and out of scope. Schedule 1 is structured in a rather confusing way with a set of “excluded services” and other “exceptions and exclusions” some of which then don’t apply in certain instances. I suggest you tackle it in print rather than on screen. Continue Reading…