Monday 2 November 2015

Legal aid - From the depths of defeat we need a catalyst for renewal' by Robin Murray

Leaving aside the important issue of the contracts it is the appalling collapse in legal rates following that are worrying more and more of us. These are not just the scheduled 17.5% 'across the board' cut but in many cases far more severe cuts with, for example in my own county of Kent, cuts in police station work of up to 34% in fees. Very few businesses can survive such a disastrous reduction in income without severe consequences for both the business and the public even with an increase in volume for those who have 'won' duty contracts. This to be followed by further cuts to Crown court fees in January. One could be forgiven for thinking that the Government does not want people to be represented by viable quality firms.

Despite insincere blather about Magna Carta the Government only thinks in the short term and has no sense of history at all. In the past we had poor cover in the police stations which led to abuse of suspects and reform in 1984 with the introduction of PACE. It took a number of high profile miscarriages of justice cases and the Phillips Commission to achieve that reform as by the 1980’s the horrific injustices simply could no longer be ignored. More embarrassing legal disasters are inevitable unless there is a major rethink from the Treasury and MOJ. The measure of justice and the quality of life in the UK is not only something that should be judged in purely economic terms. A healthy judicial system is integral to what makes this nation stable, why we are respected as a nation and why people invest and live here.

I am very concerned that the low rates under the new contract will inevitably lead to a dumbing down in quality despite the efforts of those of us with a social conscience that will desperately resist that process. Then we will have shocking cases that will force the issue into public awareness by which time all the present generation of myopic politicians and their supine civil servants will have moved on.

What is sad is that there is the real danger of good quality lawyers shying away from low paid legal aid work because a social conscience does not pay the mortgage.

This is an issue that applies to both branches of the profession and it is our collective failure that we have not united and risen up together in protest against these cuts instead of allowing the Government to divide us. We have become transfixed by contracting processes and by hardly disguised turf wars about advocacy standards when it all really distils into the fundamental issue of underfunding of Legal Aid. That is the real issue not who does what to which standard important though standards are to both sides of the profession. Massive cuts will lead to a collapse in quality to all branches of the profession, the judiciary and to other agencies.

I no longer have a formal leadership role (although remain on the CLSA committee) but it is my true hope that both sides of the profession, all the professional organisations, academic lawyers, sympathetic journalists, economists, statisticians and all interested parties will come together as never before and form a united front. We need an umbrella organisation with a ruthless campaigning agenda and with employed PR specialists to get the message expertly across with all of us all of us singing from the same hymn sheet. All the professional organisations do their very best with limited resources and personnel. (I include the CLSA/LCCSA/CBA/LAPG/TLS and Justice Alliance and all their excellent work). But what is needed is a focused business like and frankly steely if not ruthless effort with the best people from these and beyond. 

Our main aims should include:-
  1. The setting up of a fast track time limited independent review (if the Government will not set one up then we will do so) with distinguished appointees taking evidence from all sections of the community including the profession but also interested organisations and individuals all to give evidence as to the effect of the cuts and to make recommendations for the effective funding of access to do justice post Leveson reforms. We will need to persuade some eye catching people to take part and attract media attention as well as those with a legal or academic background but at its core will be highly respected individuals of unimpeachable credentials. This may sit by invitation in Parliament or elsewhere.
  2. We need a focus for all these disparate but related issues. There is at present little or no, to use the cliché, 'joined up Government' at present. You cannot implement reforms to the Criminal Justice systems that make it work more efficiently whilst eviscerating those that work within it. How do firms invest in the new technology for a common IT platform that will bring long term savings if in the short term they are starved of capital due to inadequate funding?
  3. Reassertion of legal aid as a right not a benefit. Demonstrating the absolute fact that UK legal aid is extremely good value for money when properly funded. (Average in international terms as has been argued by me and others with reference to the NAO report).
  4. Reporting on miscarriage of justice cases in a highly effective and media savvy manner. We may need to select outstanding figureheads to present our case which we will carefully prepare for them as ammunition. Feeding this into the review.
  5.  Working with our experts helped by our professional organisations to come up with imaginative ways to fund legal aid, both criminal and civil. This also goes hand in hand with identifying reforms to the way courts handle cases. IT will play a role here.  Legal fees must be transparent with an independent input and the case made for them with comparison to other specialist sectors. Again feeding this into the review.
  6. Start again on the parliamentary lobbying by ensuring that we have a subgroup dedicated to that task.
We need in short the most powerful umbrella organisation we have ever had with membership beyond the practitioner groups to fight back this insidious concept that due to the Bankers induced financial crisis we no longer can properly fund our citizens right to legal representation. If we could afford legal aid after the near bankruptcy of fighting a world war then we can certainly afford it now and resist the reactionary tide that is turning us back to a dark age when only the wealthy could access legal representation.

I will not be defeatist. I will not surrender to the siren calls that suggest a 3rd rate legal aid system is inevitable. The expenditure is negligible and falling. No one owes lawyers a living but if Parliament insists on complex laws then we as a country must provide our citizens with the ability to access justice. The Government cannot have it both ways.

In the same way that our citizens should be entitled to a properly functioning Health Service and Education provision then they must also be entitled to a properly functioning legal system and that must include the adequate provision of legal aid not this ever downward spiral of cuts that will inevitably lead to a crisis in the near future when the consequences become all too evident and can no longer be hidden from public view. 

Enough retreat. Enough division. Enough defeatism. Let us go onto the offensive against these cuts but this time with unity and professionalism that dedicated cooperation will bring and in a way that plays to our strengths. We are not the poor miners in the 1980’s. There is a pressing need for quality representation that is internationally respected and that will never change.  We will bring the best minds and the most energetic of us together in a practical working campaign group that meets often and takes action not just a discussion group. What have we to lose? We and the nation certainly have a lot to gain by an effective united front. This umbrella group will be the most prestigious and effective group legal aid practitioners have ever known. It will inspire the profession, it will awaken the public and ultimately terrify and defeat the reactionary forces who dare to deny our citizens Justice on a 22% share of the popular vote.

We need to play to our strengths. (We have not yet shown them how Legal aid lawyers fight)
Robin Murray 
Solicitor with Robin Murray and Co.
Writer and campaigner on legal
Aid matters.
Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Award Winner
Winner of Kent Law Society exceptional achievement award
Recently retired Vice Chair of the CLSA

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