The impact of cuts in legal aid funding of private family law cases

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) made deep cuts to legal aid in the UK from April 2013, withdrawing state aid from almost all private family law cases. The paper is based on the findings of a micro-study of solicitors and Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) in Kent a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of social welfare & family law Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 3 - 14
Main Authors Wong, S., Cain, R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2019
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Attorneys
austerity
Capital
Capital losses
Criminal sentences
Family law
financial justice
LASPO 2012
Legal aid
Offenders
Poverty
privatisation
Punishment
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Summary:The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) made deep cuts to legal aid in the UK from April 2013, withdrawing state aid from almost all private family law cases. The paper is based on the findings of a micro-study of solicitors and Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) in Kent and London to investigate the impact of LASPO cuts on their work. The findings suggest that: legal aid firms have closed or merged; legal aid work is often partially carried out in solicitors' own time; 'unbundled' services for litigants in person (LIPs) are increasingly common; and family cases are being complicated and extended by the new ubiquity of the LIP. Respondents suggest that litigants may increasingly be 'giving up' on pursuing their cases, with clear implications for financial justice and contact with children. Further research is needed into the financial and affective impact of the cuts and the distribution of losses and difficulties between genders. The study, however, suggests the likelihood of post-separation poverty, debt and capital losses increasing in the post-LASPO environment, and that firms and CABx are having to find various methods of dealing with clients abandoned by the state.
ISSN:0964-9069
1469-9621
DOI:10.1080/09649069.2019.1554784