Lawyer Monthly - December 2021 Edition

40 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | DEC 2021 THE LEGAL AID CRISIS AND WHY IT MATTERS What role does legal aid play in ensuring access to justice? Every day, millions of older and disabled people are denied the social care they need. This injustice falls inequally across society, with poorer and racialised communities experiencing health and social care inequalities. 75% of local authority leaders admit they are not confident or are only partially confident that they will meet their legal duties to provide social care this year. For people who are denied their right to social care, legal aid is a critical part of access to justice. We all have a right to hold public bodies to account, but many people with social care needs cannot afford lawyers and so rely on publicly funded legal aid to pay for the legal support. Without legal aid to facilitate access to justice, the rights of many disabled and older people might as well not exist. How does the United Kingdom fare today in terms of the availability of legal aid? There is a crisis in the availability of legal aid for community care cases. Since 2010, there has been a 92% reduction in the number of community care legal aid cases. This is not about reduced demand – Access Social Care has led a data project with a group of national helplines measuring advice demand for community care over the last two years, which demonstrates a staggering 150% rise in requests for community care advice since 2019. What factors, legislative or otherwise, have contributed to the state of legal aid in the UK today? Community care cases are legally and factually complex. Most cases require over 30 hours of work but will settle in favour of the client before getting to court. At Access Social Care, we have a 98% casework success rate. But it is precisely this type of early legal help where there is a shortage of support. Most publicly funded cases are started on “legal help”, which is a fixed fee and will never make it onto a legal aid certificate, never mind making it to court. The rates of pay have barely changed for decades. This all means that many community care cases are loss-making for community care legal aid lawyers. Some cases can be pushed through the court of protection – where it is easier to secure legal aid (rather than fixed fee legal help) – but this is not always appropriate, either because the client has capacity or because the court of protection can be a blunt tool to settle complex community care issues. The Legal Aid Crisis and Why It Matters Kari Gerstheimer Founder Access Social Care Oakwood House, St Patrick's Rd, Coventry CV1 2HL Tel: +44 024 7697 8903 E: enquiries@accesscharity.org.uk www.accesscharity.org.uk While the UK’s lack of legal aid availability is startling, it is also easy to lose sight of its true impact amid the statistics and population percentages. Below, Access Social Care CEO Kari Gerstheimer explores more of the ways in which the UK’s legal aid drought is harming its most vulnerable citizens. Kari Gerstheimer is the CEO and Founder of Access Social Care, a new charity providing free legal advice and information for people with social care needs, helping these people achieve a better quality of life. Access Social Care are working towards a future where social care is adequately funded, and everyone gets the support they need.