The Law Society today issued proceedings against the Ministry of
Justice to challenge a decision to implement further cuts to
legal aid.
Payments for paper-heavy crown court cases - where large amounts
of evidence are served - have been slashed and the defence in
complex trials has been hit by a substantial cut. This is on top
of multiple pressures defence lawyers are already facing in their
efforts to ensure justice is served.
Law Society president Joe Egan said: “The government is cutting
the payments made to defence lawyers for considering and
responding to evidence served by the prosecution. Their
justification for this cut is that electronic and social media
evidence is not always relevant to the complexity of the case.
However, it was exactly this social media evidence that defence
lawyers had to examine in order to secure the exoneration of Liam
Allen.”
Terror cases, fraud cases and serious historic sex cases require
a large amount of work, for which solicitors should be paid.
These new funding cuts mean defence lawyers may no longer have
the resources to review the evidence as thoroughly as is
required.
Joe Egan said: “Disclosure of evidence is integral to a criminal
investigation, and yet the defence in paper heavy cases are being
penalised.
“These arbitrary cuts could have a very detrimental impact on
justice. We believe this is unlawful, and that’s why we’re taking
the government to the High Court.”
Joe Egan concluded: “As we have said before, justice is under
threat and it is with great regret we are having to take this
step. However, we are resolute.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
• The
government implemented the cuts on 24 October 2017.
• The
number of pages of prosecution evidence served on a defendant
that their lawyers will be able to claim against is to be reduced
from 10,000 to 6,000.
• The
Ministry of Justice received a total of 1,005 responses to its
consultation on the cuts and the views expressed were almost
entirely against the proposals.
• In
June 2017 the Law Society issued a practice note to legal aid
solicitors specialising in criminal law reminding them that they
can exercise their discretion when deciding to accept cases if
the work threatens the viability of their firm.
