Proposed cuts could affect employment legal aid
The legal aid system is facing a shake-up as the government
outlines proposals to make cuts across employment legal aid and
other sectors.
According to Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, the legal aid
system in the UK is one of the most expensive in the world, costing
over £2 billion each year.
Now, a consultation has been launched into government proposals
to cut legal aid costs by as much as £350 million a year.
Clarke said, “It can't be right that the taxpayer is footing the
bill for unnecessary court cases which would never have even
reached the court room door were it not for the fact that someone
else was paying.”
Employment legal aid is just one sector which may face cuts,
alongside divorce, debt, clinical negligence and personal
injury.
The consultation stated, “We recognise that recipients value
advice on employment matters, but because these cases are generally
concerned with monetary damages or earning potential, given the
need to reduce legal aid expenditure, we do not consider that they
are sufficiently important to merit support from legal aid.”
Currently, although legal aid is available in England and Wales
for advice on workplace issues and potentially for certain
employment tribunal claims, in practice very few claims are brought
with the benefit of legal aid. Commenting on the proposals, Senior
Employment Litigator at Mentor, Alan Philp, commented: “Almost none
of the claims we defend on behalf of our clients are supported by
legal aid at the moment so the proposed cutting of legal aid for
employment claims is going to have a very negligible impact. In
practice, the recession will have a greater impact on the number of
claims being brought. This is because dismissed employees can’t
find other work and so are more likely to pursue claims. Since the
employment tribunal process itself is free of charge, there is
nothing to prevent them from doing so”.