Further reforms in the pipeline
- The Ministry of Justice has published a consultation on proposed further cut backs to legal aid aimed at saving £220m by 2018/19.
While much of document deals with significant changes to criminal legal aid and prison cases, the consultation does propose further changes to civil legal aid including:
- a cut in solicitor representation fees in family public law cases by 10%
- a 20% reduction of fees paid to experts in civil, family and criminal cases (though Independent Social Workers paid by CAFCASS would be outside this change)
- a residence test for civil legal aid to be carried out by the relevant legal aid provider
- reforms to reduce the use of legal aid to fund ‘weak’ judicial reviews;
The consultation document can be downloaded from the MoJ website and the deadline for responses is midnight on Tuesday 4 June 2013. The Government says they will respond in autumn 2013.
SOURCE: Family Law Hub
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