Rethink urged over cuts in legal aid

Launching a manifesto for family justice yesterday, the campaigners urged the Government to rethink its plans ahead of its Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill being considered by MPs next week.

Stephen Cobb QC, chairman of the Family Law Bar Association, said: “We have come together as a broad cross section of organisations deeply concerned by the consequences of the Government’s proposals.

“The Prime Minister stated that he wanted a family test for all domestic policy. Clearly nobody has applied that test to this Bill. The civil legal aid cuts will be bad for children, bad for women and bad for families.”

He added: “We are facing a disturbing new landscape in which 600,000 people will no longer receive legal aid, 68,000 children will be affected by the removal of legal aid in family cases, 54,000 fewer people will be represented in the family courts annually and there will be 75 per cent fewer private law cases in court.”

Measures being introduced in the Bill would also see more people going to court on their own without legal representation, a move senior judges say could increase both costs and delays.

Mr Cobb added: “We face the very real prospect that many children and women who have been victims of domestic abuse will have to endure the further trauma of being cross-examined by their alleged perpetrator, who will not be eligible for legal aid.

“It is not too late for the Government to change its approach. If it really has the interests of families in mind, then it has to think again.”

Campaigners backing the call for a re-think include the Association of Lawyers for Children, the Bar Council, and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.