Lack of representation in family cases
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England has conducted a study of the impact of the withdrawal of legal aid from most family cases in April 2013.
The study, which the office says is the first ‘in depth rights-based examination’ following the implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 shows that one or both parties in 70% of private family cases are now without legal representation compared with 54% previously, confirming that the number of unrepresented parties in private proceedings has dramatically increased since the implementation of the reforms.
The research also found that there have only been 57 successful applications for exceptional case funding compared to the 3,700 expected by the Ministry of Justice.
The report highlights many worrying individual cases and the majority of those interviewed stated that they were ignored when presenting their problem to the relevant authority without legal support.
The full findings of the study can be found here.
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