Guest blog: if legal aid 'reform' goes ahead, we will be failing the victims of sexual violence and abuse

[KateMumsnet]

In today's guest blog, criminal barrister and Mumsnet blogger Catherine Donnelly argues that the government's plans to slash legal aid will have devastating consequences for the victims of sexual crime.

Tell us what you think here on the thread - and if you blog about this issue, don't forget to post your URL.


"In the days following the death of Margaret Thatcher, the Government quietly announced its latest consultation paper on the future of legal aid. It has largely passed by unnoticed. The argument surely is won. There must be public service cuts. The country is bankrupt and we have to save money somewhere.

Where better than from legal aid, where - according to the media - an endless stream of greedy lawyers leech off the worst excesses of humanity, growing fat on the proceeds.

But this is not just about money. Far more is at stake.

Under the guise of legal aid cuts, the Government is undertaking a radical overhaul of the criminal justice system. Few have yet grasped this fact - and soon it will be too late. The scheme proposed is often illogical, and in the long term unlikely to lead to the savings it seeks. But in the process, it will decimate the criminal justice system. Rape, child abuse; domestic violence, burglary and homicide cases - cases which in any case attract less than 10% of the legal aid budget - are again at the cutting edge of Government attacks.

In its overhaul of legal aid, this government has targeted the most vulnerable. They've taken legal aid from private family law in its entirety, for example, so that women seeking non- molestation orders, or contact and residence orders for their children, will have to represent themselves. They may well find themselves cross-examined in person by a domineering and bullying husband. Legal aid can be granted where there is at least one police report of domestic violence, yes. But if she has previously suffered in silence, she's on her own.

In addition to these reforms, the Government is proposing a scheme called 'best value tendering'. Contracts will be tendered for, and the lowest bid will win. Those in the running include G4S, Tesco and the haulier Eddie Stobart.

A lack of legal training or knowledge is no bar to running one of these contracts, though of course these 'alternative business structures' are unlikely to be motivated by the same idealism that still drives most criminal lawyers.

Effectively, G4S, Eddie Stobart and the like will be running crown court trials. In order to maximise profit, you will be provided with a cut-rate advocate who will do the job cheaply and quickly, with the profit making its way into the CEO's bonus.

If the system is flooded with inexperienced advocates just out of law school who will do the job for peanuts, there will be no work for the independent criminal bar. They would be no financial incentive for the large conglomerates to use them. In those circumstances the independent bar will be unable to survive.

But remember the bar also provides the country's prosecutors. What might the loss of this collective experience mean for the most vulnerable - victims of rape and domestic violence, children who have been abused.

Currently, these cases are by and large dealt with by people with skill and experience - who can, for example, cross-examine a child with care, judgement and compassion. These things take years to learn.

What the government fail to understand - at least, one hopes they have failed to understand - is that the pool of advocates who prosecute and who are committed to prosecuting properly will go. A colleague of mine recently cross-examined a child in seven minutes. The inexperienced higher court advocate co-defending with him took an hour - the child, predictably, becoming increasingly distraught.

Because the police and the CPS are so under resourced, sexual and domestic violence cases also rely heavily on lawyers to do work for which they are not paid, and which in theory does not come under their remit. To make sure that a case is done properly we do the extra work that is necessary.

These cases are enormously hard to prosecute to conviction, as jurors still bring huge myths about rape into court. The government's new system rewards a speedy conclusion - but some cases just cannot be rushed. Years of sexual abuse cannot be reduced to an hour. There are people who think it can, of course - some judges routinely tell advocates to chop the evidence of rape victims and child sex abuse victims down to an hour notwithstanding that it means compelling detail is eviscerated in the process. This is how such cases are lost.

A nation's criminal justice system says a great deal about that country. How a society treats its victims - those who through no fault of their own find themselves face to face with the state, possibly at one of the most traumatic times in their lives - speaks volumes.

Conviction rates are already too low for sex abuse cases. Once more the government treat them as the poor relations of the money cases, and the results in this area of law will be devastating.

Please, make your voice heard. Write to your MP, or sign this petition. At the very least, tweet this blog; you might help people understand just what is about to be lost, before it is too late."

Catherine Donnelly blogs at The Barrister's Tale.

For more information on the proposed changes to legal aid, have a look here - and there's more about Mumsnet's We Believe You campaign here.

[ZillionChocolate]

Inraolyn whilst I'd suggest you try to avoid going to court, you have to do what you think is best for your children. If he takes you to court, you might be able to find a lawyer (solicitor or direct access barrister) who will act for a fixed fee. If that's not an option, the bar council have written a guide on representing yourself.

[Viviennemary]

I'm afraid I agree with clouds. A lot of people were not entitled to legal aid before the reforms. Even if it was income based these people had absolutely no hope of paying for their own legal representation. The threshold was very low. So either if you were very rich you could afford it or were very poor you got legal aid. And if you were in the lower end of the middle you got nothing. And surely prosecutions will still be made where criminal acts are involved. I think legal aid was well overdue for reform.

[kgs2011]

I have seen plenty of poor criminal lawyers - just because they don't strike or protest or complain to the public it doesn't mean they aren't badly paid. Criminal paralegals in London can earn £14k pa. top criminal firms pay £10 an hour to paralegals and expect them to work on a zero hours contract - meaning many earn less than minimum wage. Why do we work for so little? Because we believe in the justice sytem and the fundamental principle of the right to a fair trial. There are a handful of top barristers who earn big money but they still earn less than any other professionals who are at the top of their professions- bankers, civil lawyers, doctors,accountants. The majority of criminal solicitors in legal aid get paid peanuts to work all hours - day and night in police stations, prisons and courts up and down the country providing support and advice and comfort to people who desperately need it. The woman who has after years of abuse finally stabbed her husband. The 14 year old boy who elbowed someone in the face during a rugby scrum and is now arrested for it, the overworked and exhausted midwife who fell asleep at the wheel and hit a child, the man who stole from his employer because he was made redundant and lost everything... All these people not criminals ordinary folk who do something terrible but need good legal representation. Sign the petition and help us save the justice system.
epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48...

[lucindee]

Just wanted to say that his paragraph "They've taken legal aid from private family law in its entirety, for example, so that women seeking non- molestation orders, or contact and residence orders for their children, will have to represent themselves. They may well find themselves cross-examined in person by a domineering and bullying husband. Legal aid can be granted where there is at least one police report of domestic violence, yes. But if she has previously suffered in silence, she's on her own." is not accurate. Legal aid is still available for victims of domestic violence to obtain a non-molestation order and other orders concerning children also, where there is evidence of DV. There does have to be evidence, which can be difficult for some, but the evidence can come in a number of forms - if anyone is reading this and is panicking slightly, or unsure if they could qualify for legal aid a family solicitor will be able to help them work it out, or they could visit the justice website www.justice.gov.uk/legal-aid-for-private-family-matters which gives some guidance on what evidence counts.

[Merle]

I've just come back to this thread (been helping on a school trip).

I want to say that reading it has really heartened me. When the government brought the 'consultation' forward, I worried that we would not have enough time to explain ourselves and the issues, to those outside the law (I'm a criminal barrister). I thought that no one would understand our concerns and that people would assume we are hideously well-paid greed-buckets.

There is still a long way to go on this one but thanks to all who have debated on here and who have signed the petition. A debate in parliament is really needed on this subject. We need open debate about the kind of society we want to be, and how much investment we are prepared to make to achieve our aims.

[Merle]

Actually, when I say 'this thread' I mean this one and the one in AIBU. Both are good and give me some hope.

[Merle]

bump.