Anger of Campaigners at Cuts to Legal Aid
June 27, 2011
Posted by:Suzanne Trask
The Independent reports on campaigner’s responses to the cuts announced by Ken Clarke this week. He said that legal aid "will no longer routinely be available for most private family law cases, clinical negligence, employment, immigration, some debt and housing issues, some education cases, and welfare benefits".
This will put publicly-funded legal advice and representation "beyond the reach of vast swathes of the British population", the civil rights group Liberty said.
Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti says that "Politicians have spent years wagging their fingers at 'fat cat lawyers' but today's slap in the face goes to ordinary families, children and the disabled."
Roger Smith, director of the campaign group Justice, added: "We face the economic cleansing of the civil courts. Courts and lawyers will be only for the rich. The poor will make do as best they can with no legal aid and cheap, privatised mediation.”
Patients' charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) warned that the Government was "deluding itself when it says it wants to preserve access to justice for clinical negligence victims and simply change the route by which they access it". Peter Walsh, AvMA's chief executive, said: "The only way that the reforms can save money overall is if large numbers of people damaged by clinical negligence are unable to take cases forward at all. Depriving victims of clinical negligence access to justice is even worse, and in addition to the injustice, the NHS would be deprived of vital learning about what goes wrong."
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "At more than £2 billion a year, we have one of the most expensive legal aid systems in the world. We need to make clear choices to ensure that legal aid will continue to be available in those cases that really require it, for the protection of the most vulnerable in society, and the efficient performance of the justice system.
Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of The Children's Society, added: "There is a danger with these reforms that access to justice for children and young people will be seriously undermined.
Steve Hynes, director of the Legal Action Group (LAG), said: ""The Government will be acting as judge and jury on whether cases brought against it should be supported by legal aid. LAG believes an independent appeals system is essential to eliminate the risk of real or perceived political bias in decisions on entitlement to legal aid."