Law Society proposes 10 steps to restore legal aid services after cyberattack

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The Law Society of England and Wales has called for “immediate actions” to restore the justice system, following a major cyberattack on the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) in April 2025, which compromised up to 15 years of sensitive legal aid data.

The Law Society has outlined 10 key steps for the government, judiciary and the LAA to take. These include restoring the LAA’s IT systems, ensuring those most in need have access to court representation, providing full transparency about what data has been compromised and offering clear support to those affected.

The guidance comes as the Ministry of Justice introduced further contingency measures, which came into force on Friday 27 June. In a written statement to Parliament on 26 June, the Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services Sarah Sackman introduced The Criminal and Civil Legal Aid (Amendment) Regulations 2025 –  a statutory instrument to temporarily amend legal aid regulations.

Sackman said the changes were made “to ensure the LAA’s business continuity because some LAA digital services, especially those covering civil legal aid, remain offline”.

Sackman added: “[W]e are continuing to work hard on stabilising the LAA’s systems, and we have put in place these contingency plans (and those set out in the LAA’s published guidance, which is regularly updated) to ensure that those most in need of legal aid can continue to access the help that they need.”

The breach, first detected by the Ministry of Justice on 23 April, left thousands of individuals involved in legal proceedings since 2010 potentially exposed. The attack has disrupted the LAA’s IT systems, affecting new legal aid applications and legal aid providers across the country.

Law Society President Richard Atkinson said: “Civil legal aid providers – who can make the difference between a home and homelessness or give stability for children navigating family separation – are particularly hard hit.

“They have been unable to apply for new grants of legal aid which has left people most in need unable to secure legal advice and risks the closure of legal aid firms across the country.”

Atkinson added: “Like the NHS or education, legal aid is crucially important to the public and must be invested in.”