Posted: Wed 1st Jul 2015

Local Solicitors Join National Direct Action Over Legal Aid Cuts

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jul 1st, 2015

Solicitors from firms across Wrexham and Flintshire have agreed to take direct action refusing new legal aid work at the ‘derisory rates’ offered. 

The decision means that solicitors across the two counties will not take on any further legal aid cases from today.

This means anyone who is arrested could find it hard to get to get legal aid representation. A duty solicitor will be on hand, however those requesting a specific lawyer may not get him or her and could be passed this leaflet instead detailing the legal profession’s gripes.

The decision was made last night at a meeting between law firms at the Oriel Hotel in St Asaph, which saw all but one company, GHP Legal, vote in favour of not taking on any further legal aid cases. GHP Legal are apparently meeting in around ten days time to discuss the matter, a delay that is being criticised on social media.

The vote mirrors action starting to be taken across the UK with several other areas agreeing to take action last night.

As the leaflet explains: “The Government Minister in charge of the courts Michael Gove now accepts there is a two tier system of justice. Gold standard for the rich and substandard for everyone else but he still ordered this further cut to criminal defence funding.

The Government has also announced that further, severe cuts of up to 50% will come into force in January 2016. Many firms have already closed down and many more will do so over the coming months. The result is that you will be left with a small number of firms trying do all the work at very low pay. This is what the Government want to happen.

This will affect all those people who find themselves in need of legal representation in the future. It will become very difficult to even find a criminal defence lawyer and when you do, you may find that he/she has neither the time nor the resources to properly represent you.

The government is making the cuts in an attempt to reduce the near £2 billion bill for legal aid, which helps those who cannot afford costs of legal advice. That figure is disputed by the legal profession, who state that the figure is nearer £1.4 billion.

The action will not just affect those at police stations, but Magistrates Courts too, and thus further up the legal chain as all cases start out in the same place.

One local lawyer told us: “We’re not talking a cut of fees in the hundreds of pounds our current hourly rate is £41.00, not far off what you pay your mechanic.

“We had a cut of 8.75% in March 2014, we were promised a review of how the cuts affected firms. The aim is to deter the cut until a proper review of the first cut has taken place.”

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Wrexham.com spoke with a Wrexham exile now practicing as a legal aid barrister in London and asked him about the effects the action could have if it were to continue for any length of time.

“Simply stated, the criminal courts system will grind to a halt in a fairly short time. When barristers last took action we did so by refusing to cover a case that another barrister was no longer able to do. Cases were put off to new hearings, sometimes months in the future. The action now is much more concerted.

“Whilst barristers return to the action of before, solicitors refusing to do any new work after 1st July means the number of unrepresented defendants will increase, slowing the courts down.

“In addition judges will be increasingly likely to postpone cases involving those defendants as they will not wish a trial to proceed, often in serious matters, without proper representation. This will happen very quickly. For example, any person appearing at the Magistrates’ Court on 1st July, charged with murder, will be due to appear at the Crown Court two days later, on Friday. ”

He went on to say: “I am sure, in the next few days, certain newspapers will start spinning tales of fat cat lawyers squealing because the gravy train has ended. Not to put too fine a point on it, they will be untrue. Not only is there no gravy, there is no train. The justice system is now best imagined as Buster Keaton desperately pumping a handcar, with rusty wheels, brakes applied, uphill on buckled tracks.

“We do many hours work during the course of undertaking a case without any fees being payable. The worst example I have seen recently is where a barrister’s fee equated to an hourly rate of under £2!”

He concluded by saying, “If any lawyer wants to earn a decent income, the one area they do not decide to practice in is legal aid work. Sadly, what is seldom realised is that those same barristers who defend the public also prosecute cases and soon there will be a severe shortage of not only defence counsel but prosecutors as well. Not only will that risk the innocent being convicted, it will also risk the guilty going free.

“Both arms of the legal profession only want a functioning system that is sufficiently funded to enable the cases to be properly prepared and run smoothly. We have to take a stand now before it really is too late and we end up with a legal system that is beyond repair.

“We have a government that seems hell bent on removing all protection for the poorest in society and, in the year we hold celebrations commemorating Magna Carta, their proclamation about upholding the rule of law rings hollow as they erode access to justice for all save those able to afford to pay.”

The source of the £2 per hour case is here if readers wish to learn more.



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