Legal aid has disappeared as
of a few days ago (yeah, I got caught up watching Doctor Who and wrote about
that instead).
Ok, before I get into this,
let’s talk about what legal aid is. In basic terms, if you can't pay for a
legal proceeding and you’re substantially low and thus qualify, the state will
assist you with funding a case.
If you win or gain, you pay what’s called the
statutory charge back to the state. The amount of the statutory charge will be
the amount of money that the state provided you with to fund your claim and if
you don’t pay it off in one payment, you get slapped with interest on top of
any smaller payments you make.
The biggest “change” (as the
government have been calling it) to legal aid is that it has been withdrawn
from the area Family law, unless there is an allegation of violence.
Well that’s perfect, if
there’s violence, people are still protected…or not…people who engage in
domestic violence tend to be very good at hiding it and proving it is very difficult.
So what are we going to do about those being abused who can’t prove it
immediately? Is the level of proof required for violence in marriage going to
have to go down?
Another side effect of this
could be people who haven’t been subjected to violence, but still don’t have
enough money to fund a claim in Family law. I have been repeatedly told by
Solicitors and law lecturers alike to never underestimate how bitter people can
become during family law matters. With this in mind would it be so incredible to
assume that people would turn to falsely claiming violence or even harming
themselves (so as to provide evidence) in order to get some money for a claim.
Regardless of this, the
overriding question that springs to mind in this whole affair, is why the government
cut a fund that gets paid back. If you win your case, you have to give back the
money you take out of the system and if you don't pay it back straight away,
you get charged interest; it earns money for the state.
The answer to this question is
actually very simple. The government knows that the money comes back, they know
this is a cut that won’t make the slightest bit of difference. But how many of
their supporters know about the statutory charge? How many people can be
convinced that this is a wholly necessary cut to national spending?
The loss of legal aid in
Family Law is nothing more than one of many PR stunts by the Coalition
government to appear as though it’s doing something to save the country’s
economy. Anyone who agrees can feel free to add a “yay” in the comments. Here’s
hoping that Doctor Who’s good tonight!
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