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Law > Access to Justice and Funding > Flashcards

Access to Justice and Funding Flashcards

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1
Q

Define legal aid

A
  • State funded legal help
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2
Q

What is a conditional fee agreement?

A
  • An agreement with a legal representative which means that fees and expenses (or any part of them) are to be paid only under certain circumstances
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3
Q

What is the difference between a conditional fee agreement and a contingency fee agreement? (4)

A
  • Under a contingency fee agreement, if the case is lost, no fee is payable to the solicitor.
  • The solicitor also cannot charge their client more than they would have done had they taken the case on the normal basis
  • Under a conditional fee agreement, a solicitor can charge his client the usual charge out rate, plus an uplift (if successful).
  • If the case is not successful then no fee, or a reduced fee, will be payable.
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4
Q

What is a contingency fee agreement?

A
  • No win no fee
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5
Q

Why was the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) introduced? What did it do?

A
  • Introduced primarily to deal with the reform of civil litigation costs and funding
  • Limited the civil matters that civil legal aid covered
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6
Q

What is met by the unmet need for legal services?

A
  • When someone has a problem which could possibly be solved through the law, but that person is not able to get the help they need from the system
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7
Q

For what reasons would someone fail to get the legal help that they need? (3)

A
  • They could fail to see that their problem has legal implications
  • They choose not to pursue the case because of implications such as cost/seeing solicitors as unapproachable
  • They could not know of the existence of a legal service or cannot find one who can help
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8
Q

When was the first state funded legal scheme?

A
  • 1949
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9
Q

By what decade had the system developed into 6 different schemes?

A
  • 1980s
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10
Q

Who administered the legal aid schemes?

A
  • Legal Aid Board
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11
Q

What did the 2012 LASPO Act do to legal aid?

A
  • Introduced further cuts
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12
Q

What key changes did the 1999 Access to Justice Act bring in? (4)

A
  • Legal Aid Board replaced with Legal Services Commission
  • Community legal services partnerships developed
  • Introduction of a quality mark
  • 6 schemes replaces with 2 new schemes
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13
Q

What two schemes replaced the six schemes in legal aid?

A
  • Community legal service

- Criminal defence service

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14
Q

Who is legal aid currently administered by?

A
  • The Legal Aid Agency
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15
Q

What controls the legal aid agency?

A
  • Ministry of Justice
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16
Q

Due to the 2012 LASPO Act, what is legal aid no longer available for? (7)

A
  • Medical negligence
  • Welfare benefits
  • Employment
  • Education
  • Immigration
  • Housing cases
  • Private family cases, barring exceptions (e.g forced marriage)
17
Q

What has civil legal aid been retained for? (5)

A
  • Environmental law
  • Asylum
  • Clinical negligence regarding first few weeks of life
  • Mental health and child welfare
  • Judicial Review
18
Q

When is criminal legal aid given?

A
  • When a case fits the merits and means test
19
Q
  • What does the Legal Aid Agency do in terms of criminal legal aid? (3)
A
  • Funds the provision of criminal legal services
  • Employs public defenders
  • Pays for duty solicitor schemes
20
Q

What is meant by means?

A
  • Income/outgoing, capital, savings
21
Q

What is meant by merits?

A
  • Whether the case could be won or not
22
Q

What did the Criminal Defence Service Act 2006 reintroduce?

A
  • The means test for criminal cases in the magistrates court
23
Q

When did the Crown Court have a means test reintroduced?

A
  • 2010
24
Q

What did the 2012 LASPO Act introduce in the Crown Court?

A
  • A further financial eligibility threshold which restricted those eligible for legal aid
25
Q

What is Criminal Defence Direct?

A
  • A free telephone service set up in 2005 to provide advice to people detained by the police for non-imprisonable offences
26
Q

What are the problems with the legal aid system? (5)

A
  • Access to justice is often denied
  • Problems with the public defender scheme
  • The costs of criminal cases
  • Unfair trial if legal aid is refused
  • Too heavy reliance on private practice
27
Q

Name three agencies/persons offering legal advice (other than solicitors and barristers)

A
  • Law centres
  • Trade unions
  • Pro Bono clinics
28
Q

What problem with conditional fee agreements arose in Coventry v Lawrence (2014)? What did the Supreme Court suggest?

A
  • The costs order was almost 10x the worth of the claim
  • Cost arrangements for conditional fee agreements might breach the right to a fair trial, since defendants who lose have to pay success fee and after the event insurance
29
Q

What happened in Motto v Trafigura (2011)?

A
  • The lawyers working under a conditional fee agreement charged 100% success fee, which took the bill from £30 million to over £100 million
30
Q

What did LASPO 2012 change about conditional fee agreements?

A
  • The success fee for conditional fee agreements is no longer recoverable from the losing party, except for privacy, defamation and insolvency claims
31
Q

What is the cap on success fees for personal injury?

A
  • 25%
32
Q

What did LASPO 2012 change about contingency fee agreements?

A
  • Lawyers are now allowed to enter into contingency fee agreements known as damage - based agreements with their clients
33
Q

What are the limits of the damages lawyers can receive under contingency fee agreements? (3)

A
  • 25% for personal injury
  • 35% for employment cases
  • 50% for all other cases
34
Q

Under contingency fee agreements, what happens if the defendant loses? What happens if they win?

A
  • Loses - pays the claimant’s costs

- Wins - each side pays own costs

35
Q

What are the advantages of contingency fee agreements? (3)

A
  • No costs to the state UNLESS the dispute is eligible for Civil Legal Aid
  • Widens access to justice - unless law firms decide not to offer CFAs or contingency fees
  • Encourages lawyers to perform better as they have a financial interest in winning
36
Q

What are the disadvantages of contingency fee agreements? (4)

A
  • Low take up rate - they are not popular with lawyers as there is no success fee
  • No win no fee in reality means no win, pay anyway (there are also expenses that have to be paid upfront)
  • Lawyers are too heavily involved in the financial outcome
  • Risky - uncertain cases won’t be taken on - anything below 50% chance will usually be deemed too risky

Law (45 decks)

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