Government slightly widens access to legal aid by looking at more borderline cases

Access to legal aid in civil disputes looks set to be widened slightly thanks to an offer by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to provide greater flexibility over the scope of provision.

The Court of Appeal has previously ruled that the MoJ’s regulations on which cases are eligible for legal aid are lawful, but the MoJ has nonetheless decided to slightly broaden the availability of legal aid anyway, with the Law Gazette reporting that funding will be provided for certain cases which have a 45-50% chance of success. Such cases must be of overwhelming importance to the individual or significantly in the wider public interest, although LCN is no wiser to how a case can be decided to have a 45% prospect of success as opposed to a 55% chance of success before it has even started.

Speaking to Parliament’s delegated legislation committee, Justice Minister Sir Oliver Heald said: “We all agree that deciding where the borderline cases fall is not an easy exercise, but we have tried to go beyond the Court of Appeal judgment in order to give more flexibility.”

The Labour opposition welcomed the re-inclusion of certain borderline cases, but reiterated its position that the government’s legal aid cuts have placed too great a restriction on the availability of legal aid.