We are pleased to confirm that the Lord Chancellor has accepted that the making of the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 was unlawful. This was in response to a judicial review brought on behalf of the claimants by Duncan Lewis’s Toufique Hossain, Simon Robinson and Jeremy Bloom, in which they instructed Chris Buttler and Eleanor Mitchell of Matrix Chambers, and Ali Bandegani of Garden Court Chambers.
ILPA provided a lengthy and detailed witness statement in support of the judicial review, and a substantial amount of evidence relating to the lack of consultation that had taken place around the introduction of the new stage 2c fixed fee. This was in addition to our statement of 18 May 2020, the day on which the Regulations were laid, in which we called for hourly rates to be implemented instead, as part of the consultation process for a new fixed fee. This is now being done.
ILPA would like to thank all of those involved in working on this matter, in particular the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, and the Law Centres Network, who all worked very hard on this. We also commend the highly effective campaign led by the Young Legal Aid Lawyers which was so important in raising awareness of this issue in Parliament.
The work has of course not finished, as the substantive policy consultation is still to come later this year. We encourage all members to sign up to the Legal Aid Working Group here as the majority of our work on the issue will be done via that group.
Please see Duncan Lewis’ press release here for further information.
- Document Date
- Tuesday August 11, 2020