Thousands of the most vulnerable people risk being denied emergency access to free advice from lawyers following major changes to the way legal aid is delivered, family law experts warn today.

Ninety per cent of family lawyers surveyed by Resolution, the family lawyers’ association, say they believe access to justice is seriously under threat after the recent shake-up of the tendering process across all civil legal work which now revolves around bidding for three-year contracts.

The survey reflects fears that legal aid is going to take the biggest hit following last week’s announcement that the Ministry of Justice will cut its £9bn budget by £2bn. Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke said in a recent interview that legal aid, which has a budget of £2bn, was one area “where our cuts can come from”.

Previously firms were paid for work on a case-by-case basis, or for a set of cases, and critics of the changes say they favour bigger firms and are devastating for smaller practices, among which specialists in family law are often found.

According to the Legal Services Commission (LSC), which runs the legal aid system in England and Wales, only 1,300 of the 2,400 family law firms previously doing legal aid work have won new contracts, which start in October. Of those which responded to Resolution’s survey published today, 86% said they will be appealing the LSC’s decision.

The survey found:
• Family lawyers overwhelmingly believe vulnerable people most in need of emergency legal aid, such as domestic violence and forced marriage victims, will be unable to find the advice they need after a number of key specialists in these areas lost their bids.

• Patchy nationwide provision, especially in rural areas, will result in “advice deserts”, including in Cornwall, Dorset, Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire.

• The reduced number of firms will lead to potential conflicts of interest – or clients having to travel significantly further to access a different lawyer – if a single firm is forced to take on more than one client party to the same dispute.

• The government’s proposed closure of magistrates and county courts will further seriously impede access to justice.

• There will be more than 500 redundancies in the family legal aid sector, with one firm saying it was likely to lose up to 30 staff members, and six firms saying they may have to close their offices entirely.

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