Legal Aid Agency refuses to fund exceptional cases

Only two non-inquest cases have obtained legal aid under the "exceptional cases" scheme introduced by the LASPO Act, according to a report by the Legal Action Group. Funding for inquests is normally granted.

Hundreds of exceptional cases were expected to have received public funding by now, with the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) estimating that 5,000 to 7,000 would be funded in the scheme's first year.

Steve Hynes, director of LAG, said: "People are saying legal aid is not being granted and are becoming reluctant to put applications in. They are amazed by some of the cases being rejected.

"It is reasonable to expect that there would be a lead-in time, but the number of cases being approved is so small that there is clearly something going on.

"Practitioners can't be expected to spend hours and hours on applications for nothing."

Hynes added that he expected the way the scheme is being operated to be challenged through judicial reviews.

In its report on civil legal aid post-LASPO, LAG said the take-up of public funding for legal help had declined much faster than the government's predictions in all areas of social welfare law apart from benefits, where no cases were predicted.

Researchers found that only 476 debt cases received legal help in the period from April to the end of June this year, 68 per cent less than the 1,467 expected.

Only 552 discrimination cases received legal help, 77 per cent less than anticipated, while housing cases were 34 per cent down.

The report concluded that reduced take-up was the result of dwindling numbers of firms and agencies offering legal aid, increased bureaucratic hurdles, lack of marketing and a public perception that legal aid was no longer available.

"Either by accident or design, the government seems to be presiding over a secret legal service. The fear is if nothing is done to increase the take-up of civil legal aid, the remaining services will wither away as the lack of use will be used to justify their loss.

"LAG calls on the government to increase the profile of civil legal aid services through better marketing via the web and other channels. We are also calling for an urgent review of the exceptional funding mechanism as it is clearly not providing the human rights safety net it was intended to."

A Legal Aid Agency spokesman said all applications for exceptional funding were thoroughly investigated. 

"We reject any criticism of our decision making.  All applications must meet the standard financial means and legal merits tests. 

"The exceptional funding scheme ensures the protection of an individual’s rights to legal aid under the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as those rights to legal aid that are directly enforceable under European Union law."