Demand for ‘urgent investment’ as number of duty solicitors at ‘crisis’ level
The Law Society has called for “urgent investment” from the government as to avoid miscarriages of justice due to declining number of duty solicitors.
The president of the society, Nick Emmerson stated that across England and Wales, “duty solicitor schemes are in crisis” because the government “continues to undervalue their work.”
Duty solicitors are lawyers who are available to a person either suspected of, or charged with, a criminal offence free of charge.
However, the society noted that this system is in “crisis” as across England and Wales, out of 32 duty solicitor schemes, there are fewer than seven members, resulting in access to a duty solicitor as “challenging”.
Emmerson highlighted in a press statement that “without investment, more solicitors will be forced out of the criminal defence profession, representation will become difficult to provide and there is a serious risk of miscarriages of justice.”
The Law Society noted that since 2017, more than 1,400 duty solicitors have left the sector. Out of those that remain, are “ageing” as fewer than 4 per cent of duty solicitors are under 35 years old.
The Law Society is “sounding the alarm bell” ahead of a Westminster Hall debate on duty solicitor scheme, which will take place on Wednesday.
This comes after the society declared “victory” earlier this year against the government after the High Court ruled on its judicial review on criminal solicitors’ legal aid fees.
Following the recommended by the independent criminal legal aid review (CLAIR), the government were urged to increase criminal defence solicitors’ legal aid rates by the bare minimum 15 per cent.
However, as Emmerson stated back in December the “then Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab, chose to ignore” this, which led the society to take the government to court in December over this issue.
“The government should without any further delay implement the 15 per cent increase recommended, in real terms, across all criminal legal aid rates,” Emmerson added.
Last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged £170m from his Spring Budget for the justice system in order to “deliver a justice system fit for the modern era”. He explained that the £170m would be used to fund non court resolution, reduce re-offending and digitising the court process.
Speaking to City A.M., a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: “Duty solicitors play a key role to ensure everyone is treated fairly in our justice system. We are increasing investment for all criminal legal aid solicitors by £85m every year, including an initial fee increase of over 15 per cent for their work in police stations and magistrates’ courts.”