Legal Skills

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[Module Title]

Word Count: 3000 words

 Legal Aid 2

Legal Skills

Introduction

Legal aid can help pay for representation within a court, family mediation and legal

advice. The main purpose of designing this process of legal aid is to give everyone in the country

access to justice, irrespective of their earning. The system provides the intrinsic democratic

society’s principles, every person is treated equally before the law and has been provided with a

right to a fair trial. 1 Furthermore, since the adoption of the Human Rights Act 1998, if an

individual could not afford to hire a legal representative, this could undermine the respective

right of the person to a fair trial that has been protected by HRA 1998’s Article 6. This article

provides legal assistance in both civil and criminal cases. On the contrary, the areas of judicial

assistance funding and the area of access to legal aid have continued to change in recent decades.

In this essay, the developments in the legal aid’s provision within the English legal system will

be critically examined.

Discussion

Any person who has been arrested and kept in police custody is entitled to get free legal

advice. Notwithstanding, if a person has been referred to a court or a civil case, it is necessary to

determine whether the person is entitled to legal assistance. 2 To do this, people must meet certain

financial criteria. The disposable income and available capital of a person will be assessed and,

in the case of marriage, the income of the spouse will be included. If people reach the threshold

financially, they would be entitled to be provided with the legal assistance. The rights’ threshold
1
Henk A. Akkermans and Kim E. Van Oorschot. "Relevance assumed: a case study of balanced scorecard
development using system dynamics." In System Dynamics, pp. 107-132. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018.
2
Mike McConville, Andrew Sanders, and Roger Leng. Routledge Revivals: Case for the Prosecution (1991): Police
Suspects and the Construction of Criminality. Routledge, 2017.
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has changed from time to time and it completely depends on the court’s level. In the current time,

if the income of a person exceeds £2,435 within the previous month, or if he/she has available

capital of £8,000 or more, then they are deemed eligible for getting the legal aid. While the

threshold for legal aid has changed, most regulatory reforms provide clear points regarding the

type of cases that are eligible for legal assistance.3

Development of Legal Aid

Until 1900, legal assistance for those who could not afford a lawyer was only in the form

of donations that were unpredictable and inconsistent, and many of them had no legal protection.

In 1926, one of the founders of these charitable organizations stated that such a system had

transformed the rule of law into a hidden disguise of anaemia, and showed justice to the poor.

However, during and after the Second World War, people thought of building a more just society.

A social security system was developed. The Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 and the National

Health Service was created that was deemed as a unified and modern legal assistance system.4

The new system recognizes that equality and representation are the basis of a just society

before the law. The divorce of the Supreme Court was the first objective of the plan and in 1950

it provided legal assistance to conduct economic investigations for 80% of the population. Legal

assistance has grown significantly over the next few decades. Criminal legal assistance was

extended in the 1960s and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 provided a recommended

liability plan for the police. Legal centres were also opened and legal assistance on housing and

employment was gradually expanded. However, as the legal assistance system grows

exponentially, disputes around it increasingly depend on its value.

3
Henk A. Akkermans and Kim E. Van Oorschot. "Relevance assumed: a case study of balanced scorecard
development using system dynamics." In System Dynamics, pp. 107-132. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018.
4
Ibid.
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The next major reform of the legal assistance system was the adoption in 1999 of the

Right to access to justice. The bill aims to restructure the complete financing system and for

regulating the legal assistance to support the rapidly developing system since its inception. The

bill has created the Legal Services Commission, which gives a person the right to change legal

services. In 2006 a new ministerial post was set up to reform legal assistance and this authority

was strengthened. The law allows legal assistance in which a person has the right to the economy

in all the civil and criminal cases unless it is has been particularly excluded. Irrespective of the

efforts, it has been noticed that the reforms have not been enough for controlling the legal

assistance’s cost. Reducing legal assistance remains a problem and a matter of political debate

and reform.5

Since the adoption of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 in the United Kingdom in 2009,

legal assistance has been provided for 60 years. According to a new study, after 60 years of legal

assistance, 83 per cent of the public has stated that they did not know much or anything about the

plan. Irrespective of this point, since 1949, the key change noticed regarding access to justice has

been indisputable. Nevertheless, another bill in 2013 further reduces legal assistance. The law on

legal assistance, convictions and sentences for infractions of 2012 aims to reduce the bill of

annual legal assistance of £2 billion within the United Kingdom at a £350 million price per year.

It changed the status of legal assistance in all civil cases, with the exception of the law on

judicial assistance of 1999. The bill completely excludes the funds in some civil law realms. This

mainly covers family and private law as well as the law of negligence. Divorce can be seen as

explicit access to justice.6 Since 1949, it was deemed as a key area that leads to an entitlement to

5
Henk A. Akkermans and Kim E. Van Oorschot. "Relevance assumed: a case study of balanced scorecard
development using system dynamics." In System Dynamics, pp. 107-132. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018.

6
Mavis Maclean. Delivering family justice in late modern society in the wake of legal aid reform. Routledge, 2018.
 Legal Aid 5

legal aid. Other issues, such as social security, housing and debt, as well as the issues related to

immigration, could be deemed in only cases where they could meet the established criteria. The

Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 was the key enactment of the UK Parliament that has provided

great support to the contemporary legal aid program.

In the legal aid program’s initial years, the purpose of using legal aid was limited to only

divorce proceedings and criminal proceedings. However, in the 1970s, when the legal centres

started to open, legal assistance changed. The need for legal assistance in employment and

housing was identified. In North Kensington, London, on 17 July 1970, the first legal centre was

established. In the last decades of the 20th century, the legal aid’s cost grew exponentially and, for

1995-1996, the total cost amounted to 1,400 million pounds. The availability of legal assistance

has changed significantly, and in the review of the legal aid acquisitions made by Lord Carter in

2006, some recommendations were made on future changes. Lord Carter proposed the creation

of a new competition system within the United Kingdom with an emphasis on price. The result

of the report was a further reduction within the additional bureaucracy’s introduction and legal

aid.7

The key change within the legal aid has been the law on Legal Aid, Sentencing and

Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO 2012), which came into force on 1 April 2012. The

Legal Aid Agency (LAA) was created by this act, which has been responsible currently for

administering legal assistance. Only organizations that have signed an agreement with the LAA

could provide legal assistance services.8

7
Burridge, Andrew, and Nick Gill. Conveyor‐belt justice: Precarity, access to justice, and uneven geographies of
legal aid in UK asylum appeals. 2017. Antipode 49, no. 1 23-42.
8
Felicity Kaganas. Justifying the LASPO Act: authenticity, necessity, suitability, responsibility and autonomy. 2017.
Journal of social welfare and family law 39, no. 2 168-188.
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Critical Examination

For examining the development of legal aid law, it is significant to assess the decision

provided by the court in different cases. For example, Ian Brady was sentenced to jail in 1966 for

3 murders. He was arrested at Ashworth hospital. The person requested permission to seek

judicial review for challenging the lawyers who have refused to authorize an individual to

represent the interests in the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT). Brady’s group of lawyers

stated that Judge Liz Truss had the right for intervening to make sure a lawyer of his choice

represented him, however, he refused to do so as he would not be lawful and appropriate in

February 2017, and Judge Morris described the complaint as indisputable and established that it

has no real chance of success.

The judge stated that the provisions of the European Court of Human Rights itself, as

well as the provisions of the judicial authorities in each case, do not support the right to receive

state representation in civil proceedings, especially in cases of detention. Although it is deemed a

unique case, it reserves the right not to be released by a lawyer of his own choice. In Croissant

v Germany (1993) 16 EHRR 135, it was stated that if a person wants to know the situation in

the criminal process, the lawyer must represent the interests of a civilian.

LASPO 2012 includes a large number of cases of judicial assistance financing, which

include housing, allowances, arrears, immigration, work and clinical negligence. 9 The basis for a

significant reduction in legal assistance is the current economic situation and the need for

austerity measures. Some critics believe that the cuts are ideological and that these changes

violate international law. The recommendations of the Rushcliffe Commission are no longer part

of the current legal assistance system. Human rights organizations like Freedom believe that a

9
Felicity Kaganas. Justifying the LASPO Act: authenticity, necessity, suitability, responsibility
and autonomy. 2017. Journal of social welfare and family law 39, no. 2 168-188.
 Legal Aid 7

well-funded legal assistance system is a human right and that access to justice is necessary for

the rule of law and democracy.10

Justice Denied to Users?

According to the text by Elliott and Quinn on the legal system, the civil court system has

always been randomized in response to different things at different times. The overlapping

powers of the three different types of applicable laws do not help. In the eighteenth century,

delays were common and the procedures were open only to those who had enough money to start

or defend a case. In all respects, the system respects the wealth and well-being of the judiciary

and limits those who could not defend their rights. This situation continued during the 1846

reforms, and with the creation of district courts, it is said, everyone can access justice, rapidly

increase efficiency and provide them with economic services, including social justice, which

their rights could not pay before. This opinion echoes the modern version of Wolfe’s reform,

which affirms the same faith. However, when Eliot and Quinn expressed a desire to speed up and

make the court more accessible, he criticized Woolf’s ideals. Elliot and Quinn fear that the speed

of efficiency of use is contrary to the nature of fairness and impartiality. They also expressed

concern about the proliferation of cases, which would lead to the congestion of civil courts that

could not meet the objectives confirmed by Wolf.

Due to the limited number of judges and the actual number of court cases, this can

exacerbate the problem of good time management. Although this statement was drafted in 1997,

and the reform was under discussion, the decision in Barclays Mercantile Business Finance Ltd v

Marsh11 stated by Brooke, LJ was deemed a relevant decision at that time. It was stated that due
10
Ibid.

11
[2002] EWCA Civ 948
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to the lack of key judicial staff and its bureaucracy caused a delay. The facts of this case are still

quite evident in recent times.12 It can be argued that the absence of an additional judge leads the

parties and their witnesses to excessive uncertainty and concern. They use the example of an

accountant. If a person makes an appointment to see it, he/she want to see it at that moment.

However, in practice, through the designated judicial session, this is only temporary, depending

on the complexity of the previous case and the need for the judge to summarize, the case could

not be considered for several days or even months. Know the benefits of the law and

jurisprudence.

There has been various points identified at the inefficiency and unfair delays in the

district court, particularly following thousands of cases pending several arguments due to legal

uncertainty and complexity in the same cases, some of which should be considered in the paper

phase of the interim solution. The civil courts are in no hurry and are unwilling to make better

changes, preferring to remain in their well-known environment, even as society and its people

move faster with an increase in the number of trials. Before Woolf began the review of the civil

judicial system, the Civil Judicial Review of 1988 finally described the error of the system of

ordinary people in the scenario, they sought legal recourse in the courts, but were disappointed

and confronted with the economy. The difficulty is associated with long delays. This review

contributes to forgotten changes and helps a person to stay familiar. This system can be modified

only with the intervention of the Parliament, which in 1990 approved the Courts and Legal

Services Act that requires a greater number of cases before the District Court in the Superior

Court since the increases in costs are a burden for parts.13

12
Lain McDonald. Current developments. 1997. The Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law 19, no. 2 219-230.

13
Felicity Kaganas. Justifying the LASPO Act: authenticity, necessity, suitability, responsibility and autonomy.
2017. Journal of social welfare and family law 39, no. 2 168-188.
 Legal Aid 9

Woolf has made changes through extensive consultation to simplify complex procedures

and obsolete ideas and notes. In accordance with Parliament’s 1997 law, the result was called the

1998 Civil Procedure Regulation. The Civil Justice Commission, an advisory body delegated by

Parliament, constantly monitors and updates the rules and procedures. Sir Jacob quoted the man

as having two opponents in every civil dispute, some defend rights and others deny. Although the

comparison system is the starting point of the British legal system, it will cause its problems due

to its nature and its functions. Woolf acknowledged this in his report, stating that the

confrontational approach is the main cause of serious delays and other issues related to the civil

justice system. Although he did not recommend the abolition of conflicting practices, he

expressed concern about the attorney’s attitude regarding the trial and the consequences of the

insufficient training of the judge. Therefore, to date, it is entirely due to the fact that judicial

officials are waving the sword of justice so that their defence systems remain effective, fast and

fair for their users.

Due to the limited celebration of the 65th anniversary of such legal assistance, 600,000

individuals lost the opportunity for receiving the civil legal assistance due to the government’s

reduction last year in April. Nowadays, the UK legal assistance system is analysed after

continuous budget cuts. The Bar Association is concerned that the increase in court costs, the

closure of the courts and the reduction of legal assistance are gradually weakening the

opportunities for ordinary people in England and Wales to access justice and undermine their

ability to exercise the rights.14

When people explain the legal aid’s history and the development that has taken place till

date, it is considered quite difficult for ignoring that this progress seems to be cyclical and dates

14
Steve Wilson, Helen Rutherford, Tony Storey, and Natalie Wortley. English Legal System. Oxford University
Press, 2018.
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back to 1949. It is difficult for the poorest of society to get legal assistance. When there is a

system formed for protecting the individuals in need, it could make people unable to get legal

protection. People are often forced to use charitable funds and non-governmental organizations

to get the legal assistance they need.15

Conclusion

Although there is a provision for legal assistance, the court attaches great importance, but

the most important problem is that in cases involving economic crimes or the illegal prohibition

of prostitution or child abuse, these rights do not exist, and in the case of social justice, Free

State services are not available. The right to free assistance is not unlimited. This right does not

extend to crimes punishable by fines, regardless of whether they are directly imprisoned for fines

for such crimes. Any other explanation will lead to an endless extension of the rights to milder

crimes, which will lead to the loss of scarce resources, which should be used in more serious

situations.

Considering its practical applicability, the poor state of the respondents must provide free

legal services and, as this is permitted by the Constitution, each country must take immediate

action in these areas. The constitutional rights of every defendant could not hire a lawyer and

obtain legal services due to poverty, poverty or isolation, so the state and the state provide free

legal services. The Constitution states that these defendants can count on lawyers if they need

them. If free legal services are not provided to a defendant, the same process can be recognized

as an illegal Article 21 and I hope that every state government will do everything possible to

avoid this possibility. Therefore, if the judiciary needs it, the state has a constitutional mandate to

15
Ibid,
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provide lawyers to the accused. Thus, it is necessary to take strict measures to ensure that legal

assistance is provided in a way that preserves the essence provided by the Constitution.
 Legal Aid 12

Bibliography

Cases

Barclays Mercantile Business Finance Ltd v Marsh [2002] EWCA Civ 948

Croissant v Germany (1993) 16 EHRR 135

Legislation

Courts and Legal Services Act

Human Rights Act 1998

Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO 2012)

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

Books

Akkermans, Henk A., and Kim E. Van Oorschot. "Relevance assumed: a case study of balanced

scorecard development using system dynamics." In System Dynamics, pp. 107-132.

Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018.

Maclean, Mavis, ed. Delivering family justice in late modern society in the wake of legal aid

reform. Routledge, 2018.

McConville, Mike, Andrew Sanders, and Roger Leng. Routledge Revivals: Case for the

Prosecution (1991): Police Suspects and the Construction of Criminality. Routledge,

2017.

Wilson, Steve, Helen Rutherford, Tony Storey, and Natalie Wortley. English Legal System.

Oxford University Press, 2018.

Journal Articles
 Legal Aid 13

Burridge, Andrew, and Nick Gill. Conveyor‐belt justice: Precarity, access to justice, and uneven

geographies of legal aid in UK asylum appeals. 2017. Antipode 49, no. 1 23-42.

Kaganas, Felicity. Justifying the LASPO Act: authenticity, necessity, suitability, responsibility

and autonomy. 2017. Journal of social welfare and family law 39, no. 2 168-188.

McDonald, Lain. Current developments. 1997. The Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law 19,

no. 2: 219-230.