In an attempt to try and save £290 million from the annual legal aid budget for the UK, our Government has announced that some cut backs are going to have to be carried out. It's important to understand what legal aid is: it is the money that the government supply to help to protect an individual's basic rights and make use of the court process to assist with solving disputes. This aid helps roughly 2M people every year and the changes will result in less people being eligible to claim for it.
One of the predominant changes is that the capital qualification (where legal aid is still available) will be reduced from £8k to £1k - a big step that will ultimately impact upon many people and families throughout the United Kingdom. Also, it will also no longer be available to people who are involved with disputes with regards to children or to money issues to do with divorce. This will surely have many repercussions for solicitors that undertake a lot of divorce work.
It's not only these cuts to the legal aid that the government wants to carry out, they also are proposing to remove this aid for clinical negligence claims and to those seeking advice about employment, education, immigration, debt, housing and benefit issues. The changes made will have a huge impact on society. You must ensure that you are aware of any of the changes that are going to happen regarding this aid. When it comes to clinical negligence claims, it will still be possible to acquire advice from 'no win, no fee' firms, however, their fees will be higher. Their fees will also be subtracted in part from any damages claimed.
This aid will remain to be there for those involved with care proceedings and the industry largely expects that it will still be there for family mediation. For cases involving domestic violence they still allow someone to receive this form of aid, but to determine whether it should be granted will be tested and become much stricter.
The proposed cutbacks are all with a view to save money from the annual legal aid budget, which is largely estimated to be a large two billion pounds. Fewer people will have access to legal aid so the legal profession will also have to react - especially Solicitors that only complete legal aid family work. It's likely you'll hear more about Government cut backs this in the press over next months.
Gosschalks Solicitors are a full service law firm based in Hull, East Yorkshire. If you have any questions about this article please contact Gosschalks solicitors on 01482 324252.
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