Legal aid cuts a threat to justice
L-R: From Monash Associate Professor Bronwyn Naylor, Professor Jude McCulloch, Dr Asher Flynn, and from Warwick Ms Natalie Byrom and Professor Jackie Hodgson
Reduced funding for legal aid services in Australia, England and Wales is raising concern about the effects on society and the legal system.
Academics, legal practitioners and civil rights activists have joined forces to examine the impact of the cuts and develop a research agenda to foster equitable access to justice.
Dr Asher Flynn from the Monash School of Social Sciences said restrictions on services and reductions to funding would not produce significant savings, and governments had failed to consider the far-reaching consequences of such measures.
“Changes to judicial sentencing practices, such as the introduction of baseline sentencing and a stronger focus on punitive measures, will combine with restrictions on front-line and holistic legal service provisions to create what many of those practising in the legal system describe as ‘a perfect storm’,” Dr Flynn said.
“We face a significant increase in unrepresented defendants in the lower courts. In family and civil law, unrepresented litigants, including vulnerable women and children trapped in violent environments, will be left to navigate a highly complex legal system, with judges then forced to play an interventionist role.”
The Monash Warwick Alliance has provided financial support for new research and policy-led collaboration. The debate began with a one-day workshop at the University of Warwick, UK, in March.
A second event at Monash last week was attended by more than 30 experts, who discussed the need to ensure that funding and policy changes did not result in a two-tiered system of justice: one for those who could afford legal representation and one for those who could not.
“Ill-considered, quick-fix resource and policy restrictions combined with a punitive law and order agenda could irreversibly damage the rule of law as we know it,” Dr Asher said.
Professor Jackie Hodgson from the University of Warwick School of Law said addressing the wider consequences of legal aid cuts was vital.
“Part of our research will measure the wider economic and social costs resulting from the funding cuts, as well as the impact on individuals and their ability to access a fair trial. There is almost no funding available in many social welfare matters in England and Wales, and as the criminal process has become increasingly complex, accused persons risk losing their liberty without proper legal advice,” Professor Hodgson said.
“In England and Wales, the legal profession has already absorbed reductions in fees over many years and the current proposals threaten to put many firms out of business. Across a range of areas of law, there is already significant loss of practitioners with vital experience and expertise.”
The Monash Warwick Alliance is an innovative approach to higher education and research that is accelerating the exchange of people, ideas and information between Monash and Warwick Universities.
More information on this project and a copy of a report from the first workshop is available at Warwick’s Access to Justice website.