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Judicial reviews herald start of fight back, says LAPG co-chair
This column documents evidence of the effect of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012. Readers are invited to send in relevant information for publication. Submissions of up to 500 words will be published in full and, on request, anonymised. E-mail: fbawdon@lag.org.uk using the message title ‘Legal aid cuts impact statement’. The last year has been a momentous one for legal aid lawyers, not just because of the impact of the cuts, but because of the ‘sterling work done to challenge the most offensive of the changes,’ Legal Aid Practitioners Group co-chair Nicola Mackintosh QC told delegates at its annual conference.
In a well-received speech, Mackintosh cited the string of successful judicial reviews as ‘real signs of the fight back for ordinary people, who have the same rights to humanity as those privileged enough to not need the law or legal aid’.
The defeat of government over key reforms like the residence test, criminal consultation, and domestic violence gateway was a chink of light in ‘this apparently dark wilderness,’ she said.
After the string of successful challenges to its legal aid reforms government should ‘revisit its litigation strategy as far as merits are concerned. If they were legal aid cases, questions would be asked about this,’ she added.
Mackintosh – who was made an honorary QC this year in recognition of her work in the field of mental capacity and community care law – added that the looming general election provided those who care about access to justice with the opportunity to make the case for ‘the right legal advice at the right time, to stop the enormous injustices, which we see or are now often invisible’.
While none of the political parties would commit to reversing the cuts introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, there was scope to rethink some of the more pernicious changes, and to ‘make arguments for starting to develop services in our communities anew’. The next government had to get the message ‘there can be no more cuts’.
However, Hugh Barrett, Legal Aid Agency director of commissioning and strategy, struck a much more downbeat note. He told the 200 delegates at the Herbert Smith conference suite that the next government would impose further cuts in legal aid.
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Nicola Mackintosh QC: ‘no more cuts’
Despite the successful High Court challenge to the criminal contracting consultation process, the tenders would go ahead on schedule and largely unchanged, he added.