Legal aid system is a front line service in need of radical reform

24 March 2010

The Law Society is calling for a debate over the future of the legal aid system in order to maintain one of the most important cornerstones of UK society – access to justice.

Fears that large sections of the public are being denied access to the justice system has prompted the Society to launch its Access to Justice Review Interim report, inviting responses from the legal profession and other interested parties to help develop a solution.

The Society says cuts to the legal aid budget have resulted in fewer solicitors providing legal aid, which is making it harder for those seeking legal advice and representation to access the justice system.

Law Society President, Robert Heslett, says:

"The whole legal aid system has lost its way. Over the past few years funding has been stretched and reduced in both real and actual terms. We consider that a radical rethink is needed. If not, there is a very real risk that those solicitors supplying legal aid services, already disillusioned and fragmented, will eventually disappear or become incapable of being effective.

"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."

The Access to Justice Review discusses a range of ideas, including the possibility of a loans system, and payments into a legal aid fund by prosecution authorities and local authorities who have lost a case against a successful legal aid-funded defendant.

The Law Society says that the cost and complexity of the justice system is a major driver of the cost of legal aid and options for reducing that cost and complexity must be explored.

Robert Heslett adds: "The Law Society believes that this issue needs public debate and discussion and we have launched this interim Review as part of that process."

The Society has also organised events around the country to discuss these issues, beginning on April 19, as well as a major seminar in London in May.

To find out more visit www.lawsociety.org.uk/accesstojustice