The tall court judgment (Legal aid safety net does not work,rules UK tall court, 15 July) vindicates our long-running concerns approximately the Legal Aid, and Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 changes and was neatly juxtaposed with the Ministry of Justice’s official response to the Commons justice committee report on cuts to civil legal aid. Addressing the issue of exceptional case funding,which the committee said was not fit for purpose, the MoJ suggested that no miscarriages of justice had occurred where exceptional funding was refused. Perhaps the ruling will remind the government that exceptional funding was intended to support people whose entitlements under the European conference of human rights were at risk of being breached if they were not given legal aid. The MoJ initially estimated there would be aroundabout 6000 exceptional funding applications a year. Between 1 April and 28 October 2013 only 893 were submitted, or of which only 23 were successful. Applicants face significant obstacles in applying for exceptional funding. The MoJ must now act quickly to ensure that the exceptional funding scheme does what it was intended to do – ensure people are able to defend their basic rights.
Jonathan Smithers
Law Society presidentContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com