The beginning of the issues Flashcards
legal aid
The money set aside by the government to allow the covering of legal costs for those who wouldn’t be able to cover them
Since 2010 the amount of legal aid available and the amount with which you can get has changed dramatically, as a result of the twisting of facts and statistics and governments
what is legal aid
Officially beginning in 1949, the Legal Aid and Advice Act enshrines both criminal and civil aid
From 1960, criminal legal aid become far more popular with the intro of the means test and interests of justice test
Duty Solicitors introduction in 1984 and 1986 pushed this cost up higher
legal aid is there to save you
Lawyers are expensive
Instructing someone to defend you in a criminal case is enough to remortgage/sell your house/sell cars
Legal Aid stepped in, allowing you to have money to instruct Lawyers, to have Duty Solicitors or have your costs reimbursed
when a legal issue becomes political
In 1999, a cap was put on spending in an attempt to prevent costs spiralling, which failed dramatically and in 2010, the annual cost of Legal Aid was £1.12 billion
What followed was a series of major mistakes and smear campaigns, leaving out access to liberty threatened
austerity and the cuts to justice
2010 ushered in a period of budget cuts and austerity that threatened most elements of the CJS
With the exception of DWP, the CJS was the second most cut sector of government
Legal aid was very quickly cut dramatically, due to the fact we have the “most expensive legal system in the world”
damage
As well as a general belief that we were spending too much on justice, there was an ill-informed notion that those receiving legal aid were actually getting money themselves - so criminals and barristers were pocketing hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money
what happened after damage caused
Legal aid rose because there were more cases – not because criminals were claiming more, but because there were more reported and more tried cases
The cuts began in earnest and in 2012 the final nail in the coffin was introduced
the innocence tax
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012 made all of the changes which were enough to destroy legal aid as we knew it
It uprooted all civil legal aid – removing the option for the most vulnerable areas including family law, housing immigration and medical negligence
criminal law
In 2012, ruled that if you decided to use private practise – you cannot recoup any of that costs (despite the standard of legal exp which exists in public lawyers)
Regardless of the outcome – you cannot recoup these costs
the means test
Introduced in 2014, meaning that if you earnt 37,500 you were excluded from legal aid
To make up for this they relaxed another decision, meaning if you were above this threshold you could claim for costs up to the legal aid amount, which leaves a defendant tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket
diversity
The judicial system has its issues with diversity, as will be discussed but when your main point of existence is to represent society – the diversity needs to exist
1% of magistrates are under 30
10% declare themselves as BAME
4% identify as disabled
Most present as middle class and there is a significant lack of equal rep by sexuality
problem with MC
MC try 94% of cases, they are entirely uneducated, frequently ignore their legal advice, cannot related to those in front of them and are generally dangerous to the idea of justice
what is the chance of an acquittal in CC
23%
a quarter more likely to be acquitted
reasons for this, including a lack of understanding from MC, ignorance and different attitudes to sentencing and punishment
should we use more or less MC
seems we should use less MC – they take longer, riskier for the defence, cost more money for the government and we would still have trial by peers in the CC
Not the case
- More TEW cases are being blocked from going to CC, must be tried in MC
- The MC sentence will be double to 12 months rather than 6 months
- The right to appeal to CC following sentencing could be removed
