Last week Lord Neuberger, who is the Supreme Court president, reiterated the legal industry concerns by warning that the legal aid cuts could deny justice to many people in the UK.
This is due to the fact that Lord Neuberger is concerned that people may decide to drop legal claims due to the reduced financial support available, if this does become the case Neuberger believes it is “a rank denial of justice and a blot on the rule of law”.
The legal aid changes came in on the 1st of April 2013 to the anger and concern of many law firms and the general public.
Before the cuts, the legal aid bill was £2 billion per year; however, the government is now going to reduce this by £350 million a year.
One way the legal aid bill is being cut is by removing funding from entire areas of civil law including private family law, such as divorce and custody battles, personal injury, some employment and education law, immigration where the person is not detained and some debt, housing and benefit issues.
There will also now be a stricter application process for people who seek legal aid support. Lord Neuberger said that he understood the move to discourage “weak” applications, however, warned: “One must be very careful about any proposals whose aim is to cut down the right to judicial review.”
Here at Paul Crowley, we understand the huge implications that the legal aid cuts have for the general public. For this reason, we have started to provide free legal advice for local people with our Legal Clinic evenings, which take place on the first Tuesday of every month.
We have always felt it is important to serve the local community and therefore we hope that people are going to take advantage of the free legal advice that we are offering.
Our next general Legal Clinic is on Tuesday the 5th of November at 232 Breck Road, Anfield between 5pm and 7pm, and we also hold a dedicated Family Law Legal Clinic every Wednesday afternoon at 32 Almonds Green, West Derby between 1pm and 5pm – appointments are recommended but not necessary.