An Oasis

Legal Aid

The Guardian asks Legal aid: waste of money or vital service? and examines whether Legal Aid constitutes a waste of public money on lost causes, or a vital and beneficial service?

Six years ago, in a confidential report seen by the Guardian, 15 senior judges headed by Sir Richard Scott (now Lord Scott, the law lord) told the lord chancellor: "We are concerned that the system as presently operated is wasteful in that funds, sometimes substantial, continue to be made available to and spent on pursuing claims and defences which have no reasonable prospect of success."

Since then, however, legal aid has had a huge shake-up. Only solicitors with contracts, subject to quality controls, can do legal aid work. Barristers' fees have been cut. Legal aid applications are now more closely scrutinised to see if the likely benefit justifies the expenditure.

"There's a wider issue here," says Colin Stutt of the LSC. "You get cases like Anufrijeva and MMR and that becomes the way the legal aid scheme is perceived. But more than a million people were helped last year and more than £800m spent on civil cases. The great majority are getting useful advice which is very helpful to them."

The Scottish Justice Minister, Cathy Jamieson, has recently announced a review to end the legal aid 'lottery'. Legal Aid costs the Scottish taxpayer £150Million a year, 2/3rds of which is for criminal legal aid.

Posted by Paul at October 28, 2003 02:54 AM |