People too keen to go to court says Justice Minister ahead of legal aid cut

People are often too willing to hand over their personal problems for the state to solve, Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly said yesterday.

Mr Djanogly said he wanted to reform legal aid and the criminal justice system to "encourage people to seek alternatives to court".

The legal aid scheme has expanded so much since its introduction 60 years ago that by 1999 "it was available for virtually every type of potential issue, including those which should not require any legal expertise to resolve", he said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"This has encouraged people to bring their problems before the courts even where the courts are not well placed to provide the best solutions."

He told the Westminster Legal Policy Forum: "We need to target our help at those most in need, and for those cases that require it. I find that too often, in modern society, people are too willing to hand over to the state the resolution of their personal problems."

He said court should be a last resort and only used when matters can't be solved in any other way.

He said the Government had been looking for alternatives and was also considering the point at which the state should simply say no. A total of 350m will be cut from the legal aid budget under the spending review.

Related topics: