The case is a systematic challenge to the ECF scheme. PLP argues, on behalf of the applicant, that the Legal Aid Agency and government have failed to provide a system that properly implements the legislation intended to ensure vulnerable and incapacitated individuals are able to be represented.

A day before the case commenced, the LAA published new guidance on the operation of the ECF scheme in response to the Court of Appeal decision in Gudanaviciene and others [2014] EWCA Civ 1622. Simon Pugh (co-author of LAG’s Legal Aid Handbook) commented that while it is positive that the ‘guidance has been finally updated, it is disappointing that it has taken six months to do so’.