Labour would halt plans to slash on-call legal aid solicitors

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jan/30/labour-pledges-review-legal-aid-cuts-sadiq-khan

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Labour in government would reverse coalition plans to slash the number of on-call, legal aid solicitors attending police stations and magistrates’ courts, the party will say on Friday.

Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice secretary, has pledged to improve access to justice by launching an immediate review of the coalition’s proposed 8.75% fee cuts and to work with the legal profession to find alternative savings.

Labour’s commitment signals the opening of the election campaign in the justice sector which has been a battleground over austerity measures during the existing parliament, culminating in mass protests by lawyers outside parliament. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been withdrawn from civil and criminal legal aid, restrictions imposed on judicial review and secret court procedures expanded.

The new two-tier contracts for criminal legal aid – due to reduce from 1,600 to 527 in England and Wales from next summer – have infuriated defence solicitors, who say there will be an increase in miscarriages of justice as experienced lawyers are forced out of business. The plans are already the subject of a judicial review.

The two-tier system will mean some solicitor firms are given duty contracts to cover new cases while others will be forced to rely only on clients who refer themselves – a system most lawyers fear will be unsustainable. Labour believes it will damage access to justice, leaving people without quality legal representation or no legal representation at all – leading to miscarriages of justice.

Khan’s promise stops short of making fresh spending commitments. He hopes to find additional resources by cooperating with the Law Society, which says the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, has declined to take up its offers of making economies elsewhere in the justice system.

Khan told the Guardian: “If Labour wins in May, we won’t implement the government’s current proposals for two-tier contracting … I will stop the absurdity of the two-tier contract straight away. Everybody knows that the current legal aid market is in need of reform and that the number of providers is in need of rationalisation but the way the government has gone about its procurement plans risks depriving people of access to justice.”

He said: “I don’t have a magic wand to wave. I can’t commit to reverse the £600m cuts to legal aid made by the Tories and Lib Dems. We will still have to take tough decisions on reducing the deficit.

“Get this wrong and we risk creating a justice system in which people are left without quality legal representation, and the very real chance of miscarriages of justice. The public want the truly guilty to be caught, prosecuted, convicted and punished. They don’t want the innocent jailed for crimes they didn’t commit.”

The Labour justice spokesman continued: “The government is making a pig’s ear of access to justice. Not only have their changes left many without access to justice, the farcical way they’ve gone about it has caused chaos and confusion leaving those that work in the profession demoralised and undermining the system’s ability to deliver justice”.

Khan’s three promises are that Labour will “abandon immediately the planned implementation of the current government’s two-tier contracts for criminal legal aid”, review the second 8.75% fee cut due this summer and “undertake an immediate review of how criminal legal aid is procured, working closely with the legal profession”. Labour’s immediate review is due to conclude before July, enabling it to avoid the fee cut if alternative savings can be identified.

While commercial law practices are booming, criminal, family and civil law areas that rely on legal aid are experiencing hard times. Grayling has been blamed personally, sometimes for cuts imposed before he became justice secretary; a recent online poll claimed that 82% of legal professionals would be more likely to vote Conservative at the general election if Grayling is moved.

While spending on the NHS has been ring-fenced by the coalition, the Ministry of Justice has endured cuts of up to 10% since 2010 – one of the highest percentage levels of any Whitehall department.

Welcoming Labour’s pledge, Jon Black, president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association, said: “The shadow bench understand the harm the new contracts will cause by decimating so many firms and that the impact on clients will be devastating.“Abandoning these proposals is not gioing to have an impact on the public purse. [Under the government’s plan] hundreds of firms will close asnd thousands of solicitors will be looking for alternative employment. Clients will lose acces to their expertise and be liable to suffer miscarriages of justice.”

Bill Waddington, chair of the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association, said: “[The] announcement that the Labour party would drop the proposed two-tier contract is hugely welcome. The opposition to Chris Grayling’s disastrous legal aid reforms has been building a steady head of steam … over the past few months and it demonstrates that it is not just lawyers who are vehemently opposed to them, but a whole raft of society. “The Labour proposal to review the second tranche of fee cuts is also very timely. Through cuts already imposed and efficiency savings the Ministry of Justice has reduced legal aid expenditure to the level it wanted it to be, but four years ahead of schedule. Therefore in our view a further fee cut is completely unnecessary. If it is implemented ... in the next parliament the principles of equality before the law and access to justice could disappear forever.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ”Nothing would change for people accused of a crime. Anyone suspected of a crime would still have access to a legally aided lawyer of their choosing, just as they do now. This government inherited an unprecedented financial crisis which left no choice but to find significant savings in everything we do. We have consulted extensively over the last two years and introduced support measures to help lawyers in the transition to the new system. At the end of the day we have to make sure the legal aid system is fair for those who need it, the lawyers who work within it and also taxpayers, who ultimately pay for it.”

Andrew Caplen, president of the Law Society which represents solicitors across England and Wales, said: “The government’s assault on the basic right of access to justice appears to have no limits. Court fee hikes of 600% from April spell disaster, pricing the public out of the courts and leaving small and medium-sized businesses saddled with debts they are unable to afford to recover. With many thousands no longer entitled to legal aid in civil matters, legal representation and redress through the courts is becoming a luxury and a preserve of the few.

“It is vital that the right to an effective, publicly funded defence system is protected in order to prevent the risk of a sharp increase in miscarriages of justice. Having proper legal representation when accused of a crime is a fundamental right for everyone. On behalf of its members – and justice – the Law Society welcomes any opportunity for review and the restoration of access to justice for all.”

• This article was amended on Friday 30 January. The president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association, not chair as originally stated, is Jon Black. An updated response from the MoJ was also added