.
Judicial review success for LASPO s10 cases
The decisions by the Director of Legal Aid Casework, in each of six immigration claims, not to grant legal aid under Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 s10 have been overturned ((1) Gudanaviciene (2) Is (by his litigation friend the Official Solicitor) (3) Reis (4) B (5) Edgehill (6) S v Director of Legal Aid Casework and Lord Chancellor [2014] EWHC 1840 (Admin), 13 June 2014). The claimants argued that the policy adopted by the director, which applied the Lord Chancellor’s exceptional funding guidance, was wrong in law in being too restrictive. Furthermore, each claimant asserted that, in his/her case, the refusal to grant legal aid was wrong.
Collins J ruled: ‘In the circumstances, the decision of the director in each of the claims is quashed. I have indicated in individual claims whether I was of the view that legal aid should have been granted … The Lord Chancellor’s guidance is in the respects I have indicated in my judgment unlawful’ (para 128). He granted leave to appeal in all but one of the cases. LAG understands that the government is appealing against the judgment.
Steve Hynes, LAG’s director, said: ‘This is a very welcome decision. The ruling indicates that the exceptional funding scheme is not providing the human rights safety net that parliament was led to believe it would.’
Meanwhile, the lawfulness of the rules on domestic violence cases and entitlement to legal aid (Civil Legal Aid (Procedure) Regulations 2012 SI No 3098 reg 33) is being challenged by judicial review. The Public Law Project, with backing from the Law Society, is acting on behalf of Rights of Women (ROW). ROW’s research survey Evidencing domestic violence: a year on, published in March 2014, found that around half of respondents who were not eligible for legal aid because they did not have the required evidence of domestic violence, said that, as a result, they took no action in relation to their family law problem.
Emma Scott, ROW’s director, said: ‘Without legal aid women affected by domestic violence feel unable to access the kinds of legal remedies which enable them to safely exit violent relationships … This legal action is taken on behalf of those women in order to hold the government to account on their promise to continue to make family law legal aid available to victims of domestic violence.’