A legal challenge has been launched by the Law Society of England
and Wales in a bid to halt cuts to fees paid to criminal defence
lawyers.
“After decades of legal aid cuts by successive governments we
have no choice but to act against an arbitrary cut that will do
little if anything to drive down the legal aid bill - but could
have a very detrimental impact on justice,” said Law Society
President Joe Egan.
The government’s decision to implement changes to the Litigators
Graduated Fee Scheme (LGFS) came on 24 October - despite clear
warnings from a range of firms and organisations including the
Law Society.
Under this change, payments will be slashed for paper-heavy crown
court cases - 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.
“We believe this will have a dramatic effect on criminal legal
aid solicitors and barristers who are already barely scraping a
living as they try to ensure a fundamental part of our justice
system is upheld - that anyone, regardless of means, is entitled
to a proper defence when accused of a crime,” said Joe Egan.
“What this means is that the defence in complex trials will be
hit by a substantial cut. We believe this is unlawful, and that’s
why we’re taking the government to the High Court.”
A pre-action protocol letter for judicial review to challenge the
Ministry of Justice’s decision to shrink payments has been sent
to the lord chancellor.
“The criminal legal aid market has been placed under siege by
successive governments and it cannot stand any further cuts,” Joe
Egan added.
“Justice is under threat and it is with great regret we are
having to take this step. However, we are resolute.”
The rationale for the changes is that more pages of evidence are
now being served by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and
average costs per case are increasing.
The reality is that rates for less complex cases in the crown
courts are now so low that firms doing this work have been making
a loss.
Often solicitors have been cross-subsidising this work with
funding from bigger cases so they can represent vulnerable people
accused of wrongdoing.
Joe Egan said: “The impact of the fee-cut of 8.75% in March 2014
has not yet been assessed - either on the sustainability of legal
aid firms or on the savings it has brought to the government.”
Further savings are set to be made in the future from a
wide-ranging courts and tribunals reform programme and other
initiatives.
The savings from these initiatives must be taken into account
before potentially damaging cuts are made to solicitors’ fees.
Ends
Notes to editors:
More pages of evidence are being served by the CPS because cases
are now more complicated. Terror cases, fraud cases and serious
historic sex cases require a large amount of work, for which
solicitors should be paid.
Defence solicitors have not received any fee increase since 1998.
For some cases the level of remuneration under legal aid allows
them to do no more than first aid. That is far from a world class
justice system.
The Ministry of Justice received a total of 1,005 responses to
its consultation on the LGFS reforms 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.
The pre-action protocol letter can be shared if journalists wish
to request a copy from the press office.
