So the big questions is – How will changes in Legal Aid in April effect you? ……..Right let me give you the low down as I understand it:
Starting from April 1st 2013, the services covered by legal aid will be reduced significantly across the board and legal aid funding will be stopped for the most frequent family legal disputes.
Currently legal aid covers all aspects of family law:
- Divorce
- Children (contact)
- Residence disputes
- Financial matters
- Care proceedings
- Disputes between unmarried couples
However after April 1st 2013, the LASPO Act will limit the availability of funding to the above cases.
As such, only people in the criteria below will be able to receive legal aid:
• Public family law regarding protection of children (care proceedings)
• Private family law with evidence of child abuse
• Child abduction
• Domestic violence injunction cases
• Forced marriage protection orders
I have to say this has all really got my goat!
In the past I have used several legal proceedings, contact issues, residency and financial matters 11 years ago when the breakdown of my relationship to Beth’s dad occurred.
I have also used legal aid for my divorce around 7 years ago when my marriage broke down and I have to say if I had to of fund these legal actions while trying to maintain a home and the costs of my daughter all while earning not much above national minimum wage I really couldn’t of done it.
At these particularly emotional and stressful times in someones life adding to the fact that you may have to fund them entirely on your own may detrimentally effect peoples mental state… Who knows maybe people will stay trapped in a marriage/relationship that they cant get out of due to the fact they have no help, how will this effect them and their children?
I am not sitting here saying the all proceedings should be funded, when taking a previous employer through the treacherous route of employment tribunal I funded this entirely at great financial cost.
Having trained in a legal office as a legal Secretary I can see how some cases cost a stupid amount of money and time as maybe the client will not listen to advice and will continue to pursue something that they have no real hopes of getting but do it to prove a point or to be awkward. This can often be caused by the emotions of the moment at such a raw emotional time, however why is it allowed?
Now cards on the table I have seen both sides of the use of legal aid system. When Ollie and I got together he was in the process of divorcing his ex-wife. The top and bottom of that saga was his ex-wife decided to leave work and go on benefits in order to get legal aid and then for almost 2 years avoided signing divorce proceedings on the grounds of her adultery.
Also for nearly 3 years she continued to live in the former matrimonial after breaking in while it was on the open market and changing the locks. She then stopped paying the debts on the property and claimed poverty when actually she had in-excess of 21k go in her bank from her mother within a 12 month period, however she still claimed legal aid and ultimately ran up tens of thousands of pounds in mortgage payments and debt to the mortgage company when the house ended up being taken back. Half of which Ollie then owed even after doing everything legally to rectify the issue.
This whole nightmare meant we funded just under £4,000 worth of legal costs over a 2-3 duration while she ran through every conceivable (and some not so) options in order to not have to leave the house or get divorced and legal aid funded some of this!
Surely there must be a fairer way of allocating help?….. maybe a reduction in the fees that some law firms charge would be helpful?…… or even solicitors not allowing clients to pursue action that would never have a chance of being successful?…. but that’s just my opinion
Where do you stand?
Reference:
BBC News Q&A Legal Aid Changes
Disclaimer: I am not a qualified lawyer and this post was created entirely from my own opinions and experiences as well as reading articles like the ones listed above.