Democracy and Justice? What Democracy and Justice?
What is happening in Britain is absolutely shambolic. While politicians and mass media are focused on geopolitical nonsense, people in the UK are suffering and suffering ever more and not just because of rising interest rates and rising living costs, waiting lists in health services and almost impossible access to decent housing.
Ministry of Justice has announced that is cutting funding court support service for thousands of people who have to attend court sessions without legal representation and forced to represent themselves. Since legal aid cuts were introduced in 2013 the number of those who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer has skyroketted. By the end of June 2022, a service that has offices in 20 civil and family courts across England and Wales will be left without funding.
It is one of several charities working with unrepresented people in court whose funding is in doubt after the government ended its litigants in person strategy earlier this year. They have been told there will be grants they can apply for in future but given no idea of how much these will be, or what the timescales are.
Left with a £400,000 shortfall in its budget,
Support Through Court is about to launch an urgent appeal for funds, without which
it faces the prospect of redundancies and the closure of some of its offices.
Eileen Pereira, the chief executive of the charity,
said: “Every day hundreds of people who can’t access legal aid walk into court
buildings in need of support and guidance and this is only set to rise as the
cost of living increases. Without the funding we’ve received for eight years,
we’re facing the real possibility of closing the doors on the support we
provide to these people.
“To end up closing any of our services would have a
devastating impact, not just on the clients we support but on the whole court
system.”
Legal aid was taken away in most civil cases and
almost all private family law in 2013. Since then, the proportion of private
family law hearings where both parties have a lawyer has almost halved to one
in five.
While 81% of all those bringing civil claims – such as companies chasing debts – have lawyers, only 44% of those defending them are represented.
The Law Society of England and Wales President,
I Stephanie Boyce, said: “Cuts to legal aid have left more and more people
having to represent themselves in court as litigants in person. What they most
need is legal advice and representation, but Support Through Court provides
practical and emotional support that can help them through stressful court
hearings. It would be another blow to people trying to navigate the justice
system if state funding were removed for this important service.”
The funding shortfall faced by specialist legal and
advice support services is £17.5m for 2022-23, according to data collected by
the Community Justice Fund.
Look at the numbers. How much money is being diverted to foreign countries and how much money is being withdrawn from critically important services in the United Kingdom.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We want access to early legal support to be available to those who need it most and charities will soon be able to bid for new grant funding so even more people can benefit from their services.”
But the fundamental question is how it is possible that people in England and Wales are forced to attend court hearings without legal support simply because they cannot afford legal support and this goes to the core of the very definition of a justice system in the United Kingdom as a whole. Democracy? What Democracy?
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