Peter Watson: Unions are now the only viable safety net for workers

As 2014 arrives, ordinary people face a future in which many of their legal rights have been stripped away and trades unions will emerge as the only viable safety net for the working public.

These are the facts as they stand: reductions in public spending have resulted in the rolling back of hard fought legal rights and access to justice. Systems which have protected vulnerable citizens for generations have been swept away.

An unhappy note on which to focus when growth has finally returned to the UK economy, but what is the price of prosperity when working people have to forfeit so much?

My case for the prosecution begins with Government cuts to the Ministry of Justice after Whitehall sought to slash £2bn off the department’s bill early in 2013. Initially, this manifested in the removal of legal aid for the vast majority of civil cases so that all but the most serious obstetric clinical negligence claims must now be privately funded, but further victims were close behind.

Now couples going through complex divorces, often involving children, will no longer receive support, unless domestic violence can be proven; the “no win no fee” scheme has become far less favourable to the claimant but conversely has improved for large corporations and insurance companies. Already, we are seeing an increase in the numbers of ‘litigants in person’ and a huge reduction in the public’s right to proper justice through the courts.

I believe that 2013 will also be remembered as the year a huge financial barrier was erected around the Employment Tribunal. A new system of fees was introduced at the Tribunal, meaning those unlawfully treated by their employers must now pay up to £950 to bring their case. The trade union Unison has quite rightly launched a judicial review challenge to the fee system, but it remains to be seen if this will be successful.

The Government is also stripping back our protections in the criminal justice system. With no criminal lawyers practicing, my own business is mercifully insulated from this part of the MoJ’s axe, but across the country barristers are preparing for their first ever strike on Monday, indicating just how serious the situation has become.

As the legal aid budget reduces, there will be fewer and fewer solicitors and barristers able to take on criminal work, meaning less protection for everyone and a system underfunded and undermined.

So, with the public stripped of virtually every legal safety net during the course of just one calendar year, historic challenges face the legal profession itself.

Applications for the industry’s Legal Practice Course are now 37 per cent down on their 2008 zenith. The Government’s austerity ‘mandate’ (I use that term advisedly) is literally forcing long established firms to close. Thousands of lawyers and support staff have already lost their jobs off the back of new regulations fixing fees for claims. A campaign of misinformation has been waged by insurers in the tabloid press with relentless reportage linking every conceivable type of civil justice to a mythical ‘compensation culture’ ultimately lengthening Britain’s dole queues while protecting large corporations.

The legal services industry’s challenges are not over. I expect a further impact over the next two years as more firms close, while an increase in professional negligence claims against lawyers and firms is inevitable. How can they operate without cutting corners?

For the general public, this relentless attack on the system designed to support us cannot continue without significant casualties and miscarriages of justice. Even judicial review – the system’s final stop gap against injustices caused by public administration – is being threatened after David Cameron said there were ‘too many’ cases being brought.

Only with strong trades unions can people maintain a level of protection against the MoJ’s red pen drawing a line through their employment rights, pensions, working hours, or their ability to bring a legal challenge in the courts or defend themselves against prosecution.

Membership in our unions remains strong, despite a general lack of balance in the media’s portrayal of organised workers’ rights. This is why I believe unions can – and will – continue to represent a powerful defence against further erosions of liberty.

* Peter Watson is managing partner of Leeds-based Simpson Millar LLP.