As of 2nd October, means tested legal aid for criminal offences has been re-introduced. Means testing was abandoned some years ago as it was found that the cost of administering the means testing was greater than the money saved. That was when the means testing system was administered by the court.
This time its different. Means testing is being administered by the solicitors who undertake the work. Yet another unpaid administrative task to be undertaken by lawyers already making an hourly rate less than a Polish plumber. Anyone earning over income support levels will now have to pay.
In the recent report on legal aid reform, it is cheerfully accepted that 800+ legal aid firms will go to the wall. Ruthie wonders how the Carter reforms can be reconciled with article 6(3)(c) of the European Convention on Human Rights “Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights: to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing, or if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when the interests of justice so require”.
Even-God help us- the middle classes might be affected as whilst they might be able to fork out for the average road traffic case, a charge of fraud going to the Crown Court can run to 100K + for a full legal team for an extended trial.
Ruthie thinks the new legal aid rules would be well worth a challenge in the European Court, although anyone poor enough to have the locus to bring the challenge, won’t be able to afford a lawyer to bring it. Q.E.D.
Perhaps a suitable case for Liberty?
As I...
Slightly out of touch with all this but the last time I read anything about it there seemed to be a serious risk of there being no firms in the south east outside London taking on criminal legal aid at all.
Yes, and once all decent criminal lawyers go off and do something more profitable the system will collapse and it will take years to get it up to a decent standard again.
No-one doubt the government was mindful of this situation when they recently considered the introduction of on the spot fines as an alternative to court for relatively serious criminal offences. So the message is: make sure whatever crime you commit is lucrative.
In ten years of practice however Ruthie has never known anyone prosecuted (apart from lawyers, ironically) for defrauding the legal aid fund.
so in the last 10 years you do not know of anyone who has been charged with defrauding the legal aid fund with the exception of lawyers. It is also lawyers who are complaining that there is not enough money available to them? hmm I wonder if all the money defrauded by these “wonderful” lawyers who are doing such a public service was still in the system would we the whole legal aid system be in a better position, i think so. the problem is individual greed by small groups or individual lawyers who try to drain the legal aid fund not necessarily defrauding the system but claiming for work which is not necessary and which they would not get away with if they were dealing with a privately paying client. Its time that the lawyers woke up to their responsibility for keeping legal aid costs down and not falling into the practice of trying to maximise the amount that can be claimed from legal aid with each case they take on.
Darren: I have some sympathy with your comment. There were always a few rotton apples in the barrel who spoilt it for the majority. What used to irritate Ruthie about legal aid work is that you were effectively rewarded for your efficiency at working the system rather than on the quality of the legal advice you provided to clients and client satisfaction. One of the good aspects of the new system is the introduction of a peer review system i.e. files will be audited by another lawyer rather than a clerk who who has little or no understanding of the legal issues.
If its any consolation Ruthie’s experience is the the number of genuine lawyers trying to provide a decent service vastly outweighed the number trying to shaft the system. If your primary objective is to make money in law, you generally wouldn’t undertake legal aid work at all as there is much easier money to be made elsewhere