I have
talked before about the legal advice waste land following the massive cuts to
Legal Aid which were introduced in April this year.
Since then
we have seen the closure of Birmingham Law Centre which provided essential
legal help for those in greatest need. And they are not alone.
An article
in the Guardian this week makes bleak reading.
Other
centres are making cuts or having to turn clients away. Others are left with no
choice but to introduce charges to clients who are often on subsistence levels
of income.
It is hard
to imagine a more demoralising situation. Most lawyers and advice workers, who
go into this sector, do so because they want to fight for the rights of the
poor and vulnerable. There can be nothing worse than having to turn people away
because of limited resources.
Some clients are still entitled to legal aid, including
those at risk of losing their homes. But the Legal Action Group (LAG) reports
an alarming drop in the number of applications in these cases. This is blamed
on a failure by the government to market the services or even to make the
public aware. Many believe that there is no legal aid at all any more and
little or nothing is done to address that misconception.
They have
published a damning report which talks about Legal aid as a secret service –
The report
says – ‘The fear is if nothing is done to increase the take-up of civil legal aid, the remaining services will wither away as the lack of
use will be used to justify their loss.’
One thing we can all do is make the public aware that there
are still streams in the desert!
The Legal profession is doing its bit. There are still may
case which are run at no charge. Lawyers in Liverpool
are walking around the city this evening to raise funds for the North West
Legal Support Trust which assists voluntary agencies.
But it is really a matter for the politicians to see Access
to Justice as a right to be enjoyed by all and not just those with the money
to pay for it.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis Legal Aid issue is not to kept secret,it should be made public so that everybody can enjoy the free services of the council as a right of free access to Justice.
ReplyDeleteI encountered your net log on yahoo and read a number of of the posts. prestigious perform! I just twittered about your blog.
ReplyDeleteInstant Legal Support