‘Reforming’ legal aid?
Alan Bean argues that proposed reforms to the legal aid system will create a more unjust society – not a more just one – and adversely affect the vunerable
One evening in 1974 I watched a television documentary that highlighted contemporary manifestations of injustice in our society. As a result I spent two months volunteering at Camden Community Law Centre and then trained as a lawyer. Most of my career has involved work under the Legal Aid scheme. This scheme has been one of the pillars of this country’s social welfare system for the past sixty years. It is rightly held in high esteem worldwide. On 21 June 2011, a Bill was laid before parliament that purports to ‘reform’ Legal Aid – the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. The ‘Legal Aid’ part of this Bill received very little coverage in the news, since both parliamentarians and the media were focused on the furore arising from the Lord Chancellor’s perceived U-turn on sentencing policy.
