Over the past 62 years, legal aid has been instrumental in legal challenges against the use of torture, the scope of the DNA database, and the clampdown on the right to protest.
Furthermore, it was responsible for winning compensation for the miners in the 1960-70s, helped the Thalidomide children in the 1970s, and more recently, allowed the Gurkhas to win the right to live in the UK in 2008.
Now with the government’s proposed cuts taking away key areas from the legal aid budget, including medical negligence, education, and family issues (such as divorce, housing and child contact cases), the most vulnerable in our society will be hit the hardest.
And by ‘vulnerable’, we mean women who are trying to escape abusive marriages, fathers who want access to their children, children who are the victims of clinical negligence, and those who have been unlawfully fired from their jobs.
In light of this, The Law Society has launched Sound Off For Justice, a campaign which is galvanising public support to challenge the current cuts.
As with most things, there’s a right way to go about the cuts, and a wrong way. The Law Society has therefore proposed an alternative reforms package which advocates in excess of the government’s proposed £350 million to help protect the most vulnerable members of society.
As the government looks over the responses it has received during the consultation period, we should be asking whether individuals, whatever their financial circumstances, should have the right to challenge the government, the rich and powerful, and big business. Will the government’s proposed cuts make access to justice the preserve of the rich again? Furthermore, given legal aid’s successful history, how will the cuts affect the UK’s civil liberties agenda in the coming years?
These are all important questions to ponder, but we at Sound Off For Justice believe that access to justice is a fundamental human right which should be protected.
Legal aid’s true origins span as far back as the Magna Carta in 1215, and as the unrecognised fourth pillar of the welfare state, we should protect it or risk undermining our democratic system.
It might come as some surprise to know that just 6 per cent of lawyers do work which is funded by legal aid. These are individuals who have invested a great deal of time and effort in training to become a lawyer to represent some of the most disenfranchised members of our society.
And with an average salary of £25,000, legal aid lawyers certainly do not live up to the stereotype of ‘fat cat lawyers’.
Currently standing at £2.1 billion, the annual legal aid budget is undeniably high when compared with that of other western European nations. However, when put in the context of our welfare system, the figure is not quite so startling. For instance, the legal aid budget would only be able to keep the NHS running for one week.
Although the legal aid system is in need of reform, it is difficult to put a price on such a fundamental human right as the right to access justice and have a fair trial.
We at Sound Off For Justice are urging people to visit our website at www.soundoffforjustice.org and sign the petition to fight the cuts. We’ve already reached over 12,000 ‘sound offs’, all of which will be sent to Ken Clarke MP, secretary of state for justice.
Furthermore, we’ve launched the first ever voicemail protest where members of the public, solicitors, MPs and organisations set to be affected by the cuts are being encouraged to voice their discontent at the cuts by leaving a message on Ken Clarke’s voicemail, voiced by impressionist Alistair McGowan.
All messages left will be sent to the caller’s local MP and Ken Clarke himself, so that he can hear the public’s opinion first-hand.
As a final note, the government should remember that cuts made in haste will likely cost more in the long run.
Pushing people towards self-representation will flood the courts, not to mention MPs’ surgeries. The resulting inefficiency and downstream costs would not be helpful for a government looking to cope with a deficit.
So let’s not deny people their fundamental right of access to justice, and let’s create a justice system fit for the 21st century.
Please Sound Off For Justice.
Read also Progress columnist Kate Green MP on the threat to legal aid and John Whitting on why we should defend legal aid