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Family Legal Aid – Does it have a Future?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2011

Vicky Ling
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Abstract

Vicky Ling outlines the Government's proposals to reform the legal aid scheme for family law. They would remove legal aid funding from many potential clients and threaten access to justice.

Keywords

legal aidfamily law
Type
The Legal Profession in a Changing World
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 92 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians 2011

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References

Footnotes

1 Disregarded income and allowances are limited. For example, council tax, water rates, insurance premiums and court fines have to be paid out of disposable income – Legal Services Commission Manual, volume 2, part E

2 These are defined by the LSC, so that “client and partner reconciled” is considered to be a benefit to the client; but ‘client referred to a non-funded service’ e.g. counselling, is not.

3 134,651 certificates in private family law were granted in 2009–10 – Legal Services Commission Statistical Information – July 2010

4 It is also proposed that there should be a new limited funding scheme for exceptional cases that raise human rights or public interest issues – Ministry of Justice – Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales Consultation Paper CP12/10 November 2010, p. 20

5 ‘Impact of the MOJ Green Paper proposals on legal aid firms’ paper for the Law Society of England and Wales, Andrew Otterburn and Vicky Ling – February 2011

6 Vision One Research for the Solicitors Regulation Authority – March 2011

7 Resolution's 5,500 members are family lawyers committed to the non-adversarial resolution of family disputes. Resolution solicitors abide by a Code of Practice which emphasises a constructive approach to family problems and encourages solutions that take into account the needs of the whole family, and in particular, the best interests of children. Around two thirds of Resolution's members undertake legal aid work. Resolution's members work in around 1,500 firms who form the bulk of family legal aid contract holders in England and Wales. Resolution members provided the case studies in this article (for this footnote see: Biography).