On 1 April 2013 the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) will come into force in the UK. The Act introduces substantial cuts to civil legal aid in England and Wales.
The new Act removes certain areas of law from the scope of legal aid funding. They include, private family law (such as divorce and custody battles), some employment and education law, immigration law where the person is not detained as well as some debt, housing and benefit issues.
Cases which continue to be funded include; family law cases involving domestic violence, forced marriage or child abduction, mental health cases, all asylum cases as well as debt and housing matters where someone’s home is at immediate risk.
Where a person’s case falls outside the scope of legal aid under the Act, they may still qualify for exceptional funding under Section 10 of the Act which stipulates that funding will be available where it is necessary to avoid a breach of a litigant’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) or EU law. The Public Law Project based in Wales has set up a scheme, with help from the Law Society, to support practitioners in submitting exceptional funding applications as well as identifying suitable test cases.
There has also been an overhaul of the way that personal injury claims are funded under the Act. Under the current system, individuals who are successful in their compensation claims are able to recover their legal fees from the defendant, in addition to the sum they are rewarded for their injuries. Following the introduction of the LASPO it will be up to the claimant to cover some of their own legal fees out of the compensation they are awarded as the winning party. To accommodate this, payouts to claimants will be increased by 10%. However, this is unlikely to cover their costs. Additional changes are also planned for the current small claims limit. These planned changes will put claimants at a disadvantage as well as creating a dilemma for personal injury lawyers who work on a 'no win no fee' basis.
There are concerns that the changes to legal aid contained in the LASPO will deny justice to the poorest in society. Earlier this month, Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court signalled his concern about the effect of cuts on access to justice. He told The Guardian that the cuts could make people feel that they could not access justice and this in turn may lead them to “take the law into their own hands”. He warned that the changes could end up costing the government more since the number of people representing themselves is likely to increase. This will result in longer court hearings thereby increasing the burden on court staff and judges.
Click here to read the Act in full.
Click here to read a summary of the scope of provisions on the Ministry of Justice website.
Click here to read an update from the Public Law Project on exceptional funding referrals.