News
60 years of legal aid overshadowed
Britain will celebrate 60 years of legal aid on the 30th July 2009. As we celebrate this milestone, we could soon be witnessing the beginning of the demise of legal aid for families and children with new proposed changes to the way family lawyers are paid.
Legal Aid has been a safety net for many families unable to afford access to justice; the Legal Services Commission could be putting this safety net in jeopardy with their plans to introduce the Fixed Fee Family Advocacy Scheme for family legal aid cases from 2010.
Samantha Bushell, Partner at leading Merseyside law firm Brown Turner Ross who works with legal aid family clients, has condemned this proposal as disastrous for lower income families:
"Law firms are already stretched to the maximum with cuts in legal aid, if a fixed fee advocacy scheme comes into force, solicitors will get paid the same amount regardless of how much work they do. This would be disastrous for vulnerable families and children, as it could leave them without adequate representation and at further risk. It would not be financially feasible for most law firms to undertake legal aid cases under the fixed fee advocacy scheme, as their fee would not match the level of work undertaken."
The proposed fixed fee Family Advocacy Scheme over-rewards less complex work at the expense of the more complex work and, as a consequence, fails to match the fee to the work done. This could mean that solicitors could pick and choose the cases they take according to the level of work each one may involve, therefore leaving the higher risk, more vulnerable families and children at risk.
Brown Turner Ross currently has a broad mixture of both Legal Aid and private family work and is conscious of the importance that lower income families still have access to justice
The Family Law Bar Association, in their 73 page submission to the government said the proposed scheme would increase the length and cost of cases, the risks of miscarriages if justice and the number of appeals, and pose a breathtaking risk with the most vulnerable in society, namely families and children at risk of serious physical, emotional and sexual abuse.