The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to scrap a scheme that has funded the training of legal aid solicitors.
The Legal Services Commission has provided grants to legal aid firms allowing them to pay LPC fees and trainee salaries since 2002. More than 750 trainees have been funded over £20,000 each. But legal aid minister Jonathan Djanogly - formerly of SJ Berwin - believes that £2.6 million can be saved a year by scrapping the grants. And with every government department being required to make austerity savings, the system looks like toast.
A spokesman for the MoJ told RollOnFriday "when the scheme was introduced in 2002, we needed financial inducements for more young lawyers to enter the legal aid market. Time has moved on and we now have too many lawyers chasing too little work, and greater pressure to save public money, so the financial inducements no longer make economic sense...the long-term future of legal aid is still assured with enough young lawyers continuing to enter the profession”.
Fortunately, those who are already being funded under the scheme will not be affected. But it's serious bad news for the next generation - to say nothing of the thorny issue of diversity within the profession. With the price of the LPC inflating year-on-year, who will be able to afford to train as a legal aid lawyer in the future? Apart from Djanogly's dad (worth some £300 million), not many.
If you want to help out those who can't afford to pay for representation - check out RollOnFriday Community Action in conjunction with LawWorks.
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The Legal Services Commission has provided grants to legal aid firms allowing them to pay LPC fees and trainee salaries since 2002. More than 750 trainees have been funded over £20,000 each. But legal aid minister Jonathan Djanogly - formerly of SJ Berwin - believes that £2.6 million can be saved a year by scrapping the grants. And with every government department being required to make austerity savings, the system looks like toast.
A spokesman for the MoJ told RollOnFriday "when the scheme was introduced in 2002, we needed financial inducements for more young lawyers to enter the legal aid market. Time has moved on and we now have too many lawyers chasing too little work, and greater pressure to save public money, so the financial inducements no longer make economic sense...the long-term future of legal aid is still assured with enough young lawyers continuing to enter the profession”.
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A legal aid trainee yesterday |
Fortunately, those who are already being funded under the scheme will not be affected. But it's serious bad news for the next generation - to say nothing of the thorny issue of diversity within the profession. With the price of the LPC inflating year-on-year, who will be able to afford to train as a legal aid lawyer in the future? Apart from Djanogly's dad (worth some £300 million), not many.
If you want to help out those who can't afford to pay for representation - check out RollOnFriday Community Action in conjunction with LawWorks.