Baroness Hale: Legal Aid Cuts Are ‘False Economy’ and ‘Fundamentally Misconceived’

The Law Centres annual conference was held this year in the shadow of looming legal aid cuts proposed in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. The conference was titled ‘Law Centres Beyond Legal Aid’ and included a mix of professional workshops, plenary discussions and keynote speakers.

Topping the bill was Supreme Court Justice Baroness Hale of Richmond, who is also a patron of Hammersmith and Fulham Community Law Centre. Her opening address, delivered to a full auditorium, highlighted her concerns about the Bill and related changes, following on from her Henry Hodge Memorial Lecture in June, which had attracted much public attention.

Lady Hale commended Law Centres for their work and acknowledged the importance of specialist legal advisers to delivering quality advice. She also warned that it was ‘fundamentally misconceived’ to make cuts to civil legal aid by subject, that is, based on areas of law rather than other criteria.

Baroness Hale also commented on the increase in people representing themselves in court (known as ‘litigants in person’ or LIPs) expected following extensive cuts to legal aid. In her opinion, a more worrying potential consequence of withdrawal of legal-aided advice was that people who had cases with legal merit would not pursue them in court for lack of appropriate legal advice, and thus be denied justice.

Read the full address here: Lady_Hale_Opening_Address_at_LCF_Conference_25.11_.11_.pdf