Legal aid needs 'internet first' strategy, Smith says

Publicly funded legal services should be delivered through an 'internet first' strategy and the Ministry of Justice should take the lead, the co-author of a report on access to justice and the digital revolution has said.

Professor Roger Smith said new private sector services, such as those operated by Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) and QualitySolicitors, were helping "a lot of people with a small amount of money", who were no longer eligible for legal aid.

"CLS is a game changer, in the transparency of its packages and the professionalism of its website," Smith, former director of Justice, said. "You can see the market changing around it.

"Their big rival is QS, but I'm not sure they have the right package, as yet. CLS has a complete, all-in-one package, while QS runs advertising campaigns. I'm not sure people are interested - they want the service."

Smith compared the attraction of a CLS one-price service with the autonomy of QS's independent units.

"You have the feeling that Tesco prices are the same whatever branch you go into," he said.

Smith estimated that not long ago legal aid covered 80 per cent of the population, but now the figure was less than 30 per cent. He said that a further 30 per cent of the population could probably access CLS and QS services.

Turning to publicly funded services, Smith called for "much more advice on the net and much more imaginative uses of it".

He said Holland was the world leader in publicly funded advice on the web. "Their site does not just give you information, but takes you through a process," Smith said.

"The public sector needs to get smarter in terms of its approach to delivering advice on the internet."

Smith said that NHS Direct was "brilliant", but was shutting at the end of this month.

He added that a "sense of leadership" was needed from the Ministry of Justice, but "at the moment the government's only policy is to save money".

The report, 'Face to Face Legal Services and their Alternatives: Global Lessons from the Digital Revolution', was co-authored by Professor Alan Paterson, director of the Centre for Professional Legal Studies at the University of Strathclyde.

Among its recommendations were that the MoJ should support free access to internet versions of statutes and cases, and foster innovation through a range of "low or no-cost measures" such as annual awards.

The report also called on the MoJ to research its use of telephone gateways through mystery or dummy shoppers.

It said the "essential issue" would be to identify who fell through the safety net of the telephone gateway" and the fate of those groups for whom telephone advice was unsuitable.