Defending legal aid

Last updated: 3 May 2012

The Law Society's objective is to persuade the government to guarantee an adequately funded legal aid system ensuring quality representation and access to justice for all.

Sound Off For Justice

Please continue to support the Sound Off For Justice campaign against legal aid cuts. Add your name to the petition and lobby your MP.

You can also lend your support to Justice For All and sign up and vote for the legal aid campaign at 38 Degrees.

Downloads:

Missing millions (PDF) - government plans for civil legal aid offer unproven savings and will incur unaccounted-for costs
There is a better way (PDF) - the Law Society's alternative proposals for saving the required £350m from the civil legal aid budget.

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Latest news

Legal aid bill receives royal assent

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill received royal assent on Tuesday. While the outcome is not what we had hoped, thanks to our joint campaign with many other concerned groups, it has emerged from parliament in significantly better shape than when it was introduced.
Full details of the bill's passage through parliament

LASPO: government climbdown on mesothelioma cases

The government agreed this week to delay the implementation of reforms to no win, no fee cases relating to mesothelioma victims. This welcome, albeit minor concession, was in response to pressure from the Society and other campaigners.
Read more about this week's LASPO bill developments

LASPO bill: Society urges government to accept Lords amendments

While we welcome the government's concession on domestic violence, we are disappointed that MPs this week overturned many of the changes made by peers to its proposed legal aid reforms. The bill now returns to the Lords and we will continue to campaign intensely to secure further amendments during its final stages.
Read our summary of this week's debate

LASPO: government defeated record 11 times

The Lords has inflicted two further defeats on the government's Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, bringing the total number of amendments to an unprecedented 11. The government is much more likely to accept the amendments if faced with pressure from MPs so please highlight the issue to your local MP.
Read a summary of the concessions (PDF)
Download our campaign pack - including a sample letter (PDF)

Legal aid bill: government suffers defeats in the Lords

Following our public campaign and behind the scenes pressure, the government has been defeated in several key votes during the first four days of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Bill's report stage. It has also been forced into offering concessions in several other important areas.
Days three and four - summary
Days one and two - summary

Government concession on police station advice 'far from enough'

Following our extensive lobbying, we have welcomed the government's decision to scrap plans to introduce means-testing for initial legal advice and assistance at police stations. However, we have warned that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishing of Offenders Bill as a whole remains in disarray.
Read the full press release

Family tender announcement

The Law Society has welcomed the Legal Services Commission's decision to open a further tender for licence-only family and family and housing work.
Our response and the full joint statement

Report says legal aid cuts are false economy

An independent report from one of Britain's leading universities has revealed how proposed legal aid cuts will save less than half of the £270m predicted by the government. The report identifies knock-on costs of £139m per annum.
Read our full press release
Read the report

Legal aid bill: progress update

The second committee stage session of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill took place in the House of Lords on 10 January.
Read a summary of the session

UK taxpayers will pay cost of government?s legal aid cuts

An independent report from one of Britain's leading universities has revealed how the government's proposed legal aid cuts will incur new costs for the taxpayer by simply shifting the burden on to other parts of the public purse, such as the NHS.
Read our press release

Legal aid bill reaches committee stage

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill has now reached the committee stage in the House of Lords and the first session of the committee took place on 20 December.
Read our commentary

Law Society welcomes delay to legal aid reforms

The government has postponed the implementation of new rules governing civil and family legal aid by six months from October 2012 to April 2013. Its consultation on competitive tendering for criminal work has also been delayed until autumn 2013, with the first tender expected in 2014.
Read more

Legal aid conference 2012

Don't miss our first legal aid conference on 22 March 2012. This essential event will help prepare you for the many reforms coming into effect over the coming year and answer the key questions:

• how will my business be affected?
• how can I protect my business?
• what new opportunities exist?

Expert speakers will cover competitive tendering, the Family Justice Review, LSC audits, telephone gateway proposals and much more.
Find out more and book your place - early bird rates available

Lobby your MP before crucial legal aid vote

Your MP will vote next week on proposals to remove legal aid provision from up to 725,000 cases a year. Use our simple form to email your MP before the debate asking them to support the campaign to keep justice available to all.
Lobby your MP

Legal aid bill delayed

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill’s third reading in the House of Commons has been delayed. Earlier this week the Law Society called for a pause in the bill’s passage through parliament, to properly examine its impact on access to justice.
Read more

Defend access to justice – write to your MP

Beginning on Monday 31 October, MPs will spend three days debating the bill during its report stage and third reading. You can send an email to your MP before the debate asking them to support the campaign to keep justice available to all.
Lobby your MP

Public money wasted due to inefficient criminal justice system

A Law Society report has revealed that the government could save £9m a year in legal aid by improving efficiency in the wasteful criminal justice system. We are urging the government to take on board our cost-saving recommendations, instead of cutting whole areas of law from legal aid provision.
Read the report (PDF, 2mb)
Read the full press release

Committal fee abolition: Society launches judicial review

The Law Society has launched a High Court challenge to the Lord Chancellor's decision to abolish the committal fee in legally aided criminal proceedings for ‘either way’ cases.
Find out more

Removal of committal fee: analysis of professional obligations

From 3 October 2011 solicitors will not be remunerated under legal aid for representing defendant clients in either way cases under a representation order before the magistrates' court, if clients are committed for trial. The Law Society is seeking urgently to find a resolution to the serious problems that are likely to arise from the removal of the fixed fee. In the meantime we have set out our view on what a solicitor's professional obligations are to a client in such cases from 3 October.
Read our analysis

Telephone gateway: Society urges rethink

The Law Society has urged the government to scrap its plan to replace face-to-face legal aid with a telephone gateway service. It follows the news that ten legal aid firms specialising in community care have issued legal proceedings against the plan.
Read the full press release

Legal aid changes: what you need to know

Our free regional roadshows will update you on the potential changes to legal aid and how firms can prepare. You will also have the opportunity to feed into our campaign against the government's proposals. Further roadshows on the Jackson proposals will be announced soon.
See full list of roadshows
Sound Off For Justice campaign
Related event: Legal aid changes: webinar

CDS Direct and Bostalls: Society seeks answers

The Law Society is seeking to clarify the situation regarding the CDS Direct service following news that Bostalls, one of the providers, has been wound up.
Read more

Legal aid cuts leave immigration clients stranded

The Law Society has warned that the closure of the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) will leave thousands of clients without representation. Firms interested in taking on urgent IAS work should contact the Legal Services Commission (LSC) by midday on Monday 18 July.
Find out more

LALY awards: winners announced

The district judge behind the groundbreaking Family Drug and Alcohol Court won the outstanding achievement award at this year's Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) awards. Ten awards were presented to recognise and celebrate the work of the publicly funded sector.
See winners and video interviews

Summary of government consultation response

We have summarised the government's response to the consultation on legal aid reform in England and Wales.
Read our summary (PDF, 150kb)
Read the government's full response

Delays at Havering: Society continues to lobby

The Law Society has continued to press the government for a resolution to the ongoing delays in processing legal aid applications at Havering centralised court. We have also raised questions about delays to Litigator Graduated Fee Scheme and civil bill payments.
Read our letter to Jonathan Djanogly (PDF, 250kb)
Read his response (PDF, 180kb)
Parliamentary question response

Legal aid and sentencing bill: Law Society comment

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is the single biggest attack on state-funded legal advice for the poor and vulnerable since the legal aid system was introduced.
Read our reaction to the bill

Society granted permission to intervene in LSC payments abuse appeal

The Law Society will assist the Court of Appeal with evidence of solicitors' experience of unrecouped payments on account claims and evidence as to abuse of process.
Read more

Law Society reacts angrily to LSC confidential meetings

The Law Society has written to the LSC chief executive and the lord chancellor following news that a number of exclusive meetings are taking place between the Legal Services Commission (LSC) and restricted groups of firms.
Read more

Society sets out alternative cost saving measures

The Law Society has highlighted how savings of £384m can be made across the justice system so that government cuts to legal aid can be avoided. Over 5,000 responses were submitted to the consultation.
Read our response to the government consultation

MPs echo Law Society concerns over legal aid

The all-party Justice Select Committee has concluded that the government's proposals for cutting the legal aid budget need 'considerable further refinement', and that the Ministry of Justice should assess the merits of the Law Society's alternative cost-saving proposals.
Read full press release

Civil litigation proposals: 'devastating attack' on justice

The Society has strongly criticised the government's plans to abolish a claimant's right to recover the full costs of pursuing their claim. We have warned that the reforms mean ordinary people will no longer be able to obtain redress.
Read our full press release
Read coverage in the Gazette

MPs debate legal aid: read the full transcript

MPs spoke out about their concern over the proposed legal aid cuts at a Commons debate last week. The lobbying efforts by solicitors within MP's constituencies were extensively mentioned. The Society wishes to thank all practitioners who lobbied their MP to speak in the debate.
Read the full transcript
Read our parliamentary briefing (PDF, 100kb)
How to lobby your MP: Word version, PDF version

Video: what the green paper means for you

The Law Society's legal aid specialists discuss the green paper proposals and their potential impact on the profession, the public and access to justice.
Watch the video

Green paper consultation: template for responses

We have prepared a schedule of the green paper consultation questions to help firms consider their own response. We urge you to indicate how the proposals will affect your community and your firm. It is only necessary to complete the questions pertinent to your work. The deadline is 12:00 on 14 February.
Download the template (PDF, 100kb)
Respond to the consultation online
Full consultation details

Join our LinkedIn group

We are inviting lawyers with an interest in legal aid policy to join the Law Society Gazette's legal aid discussion group on LinkedIn. We hope to make use of members' knowledge and experience in putting together the strongest possible submission to the green paper consultation before the February deadline.
Find out more
Join the group

Urgent: send us your case studies

We urgently need case studies of your clients to support our campaign to defend legal aid. Our research suggests that medical negligence cases, especially obstetrics, will resonate very well with the public.
Find out how you can help

Make your voice heard

We urge practitioners to respond directly to the government consultations on legal aid and civil litigation funding. It is not necessary to answer every question but it is important to detail how the cuts will affect your clients, your firm and its ability to serve the community.

Law Society president warns of new threats to access to justice

Law Society president Linda Lee discusses the potentially devastating consequences of the latest proposals for the reform of legal aid, and of civil litigation and costs, and calls on the profession to respond to the consultation papers.
See the video

Legal aid Green Paper: Law Society response

Responding to the government's green paper on legal aid, the Law Society has said access to justice must not be sacrificed.
Read more

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Access to justice review

The Law Society's review of access to justice and legal aid provision has made recommendations for far-reaching changes.

Our key recommendations include:

• addressing inefficiencies and poor decision making in the justice system and across government that generate legal aid costs
• a review of civil procedure, particularly in respect to low value cases
• reducing legal aid bureaucracy and giving practitioners greater autonomy to deliver services and come up with innovative means of delivery

Reasons for the review

Access to justice is a social good: the ability to participate in public redress or resolution systems is a measure of the health of any system of government, particularly a democracy and is essential to the effective maintenance of the rule of law. In recent years, a significant gap has grown between the rights and remedies granted by government and the available means of accessing them. The Law Society was instrumental in setting up the legal aid system, and now, 60 years on, has concerns about access to justice, the funding of legal aid, costs, contracting decisions and sustainability.

The Law Society believes that the government's obligation to society to ensure access to justice has to begin with the realisation that decisions as to funding should flow from an assessment of need rather than from an arbitrary budget allocation.

Our key message to government is that you do not make savings to the legal aid budget by cutting the legal aid system, but by tackling the drivers of need for legal advice, such as waste, poor administrative decision-making, needlessly complex justice systems, and unnecessary and unclear laws.