Government’s funding offer not enough to prevent legal aid services dying out, lawyers warn

The government’s proposal to inject an extra £32-50 million into criminal legal aid funding is not enough to alleviate the current threat to “the very existence of criminal defence practitioners,” the Law Society has said.

As the Law Gazette reports, the funding proposal by Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland would be split evenly between solicitors and barristers, but Law Society President Simon Davis said the plans would not prevent the extinction of legal aid lawyers.

“There are increasingly large areas of the country where there are no defence solicitors available,” he said. “The very notion of British justice is in jeopardy - with victims left in limbo and the accused potentially deprived of a fair trial.

“Not only will the shortage of practitioners lead to injustice, it is economically unsound. Defence lawyers help ensure the justice system runs efficiently - and in doing so, save the taxpayer money.”

Davis said that “fewer new solicitors are choosing to enter criminal law as opting for other areas of legal practice is simply more sustainable as a career choice. Meanwhile, a recent boost in funding for prosecutors means that many defence lawyers are taking jobs with the Crown Prosecution Service. This further diminishes the pool of those capable and able to provide for the defence; a crucial ingredient to ensure that our adversarial system of justice acquits the innocent and convicts the guilty…

“Firms are withdrawing and collapsing as we speak - in greater numbers than ever before. This may only be an interim plan, pending the full review into the sustainability of the system, but investment is needed now - not in a year’s time. The government has an opportunity to pull us back from the brink by improving this package. I hope they choose to take it.”

The Law Society was joined by Criminal Law Solicitors Association, which welcomed proposals for new funding but said the current offer was “insulting”, as well as the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association and the Criminal Bar Association, both of which said that the funding proposals are inadequate.

Meanwhile, criminal defence advocate Craig Tickner, vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, said that the proposals are “simply fiddling while Rome burns.”