Liverpool To Suffer The Most From Planned Cuts To Legal Aid

Wed, 06 Jul 2011

Liverpool is set to be hit the hardest by the government’s proposed cut to the annual legal aid bill, it has been claimed.

Michael Danby, a specialist in clinical negligence from Liverpool law firm Maxwell Hodge, believes the recent proposed changes to Kenneth Clarke’s Justice Bill, which focus heavily on cuts to the legal system, will have a major effect on people in the region.

If given the go-ahead, the changes will see a cut of nearly £2 million from Liverpool’s annual legal aid funding - the biggest reduction of any region in the UK - which will affect clinical negligence, family cases and employment law .

Danby said: "If the cuts are made then access to the justice system will be affected. It will have an effect on some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. At worst it will mean that it will not be possible for legitimate claims for compensation for clinical negligence to be made and this is just plain wrong."

He continued: "Conducting this research into a claim can cost thousands of pounds, which is not an expense that everyone can afford."

"If legal aid is not available then with other changes that are being proposed to how "No Win, No Fee" claims are to be brought, there will not be enough money for lawyers to investigate claims and in some cases this will mean that it will not be possible to have a claim investigated at all."

"If the changes are brought in then we will probably see victims of clinical negligence, being deprived of life long compensation to which they are justly entitled. This is not right. Everybody should have a right to equal access the justice system."

Danby added: "I understand the need to cut costs, but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that this is all about the Government trying to reduce the deficit at any expense and to hell with the rights of the injured party."

"To make matters worse, such a step would have the added affect of benefiting the wrongdoer who was responsible for the negligence in the first place."
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