At first sight this announcement seems excellent news. The amount of undeserving people who are on legal aid at taxpayers' expense is disgraceful. But the opposite side of this coin is how many deserving cases are currently refused legal aid.If justice prevails; if the awards are targeted; if only the deserving get this support - then wonderful.
Something in my water just tells me that it won't be like that at all.
(Tricky stuff. Watch Ken Clarke make a complete bog of it as he is doing with the rest of the so-called justice system!)
One possible suggestion might be to bill people for frivolous defence claims. In other words, you get the legal aid but if you were just 'flying a kite' - the bill comes to YOU!
Even that is fraught with the self same dangers that the system of court fines has done to paint itself into a corner where low income non-payers are concerned.
Some might cruelly relish the knock-on effects for lawyers!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jul/14/legal-aid-lawyers-immigration-shake-up
