The boycott by solicitors of taking on any new legal aid work in a protest against the stringent legal aid cuts brought in by the government will continue at least until Thursday of this week, when a group of practitioners are due to conduct talks with Michael Gove on the issue. The boycotting of new legal aid work started on July 1st when another cut of 8.75% was introduced, this seemed to be the final straw for many working in the legal profession as they felt that the access to justice was no longer there for great swathes of our society.
The groups who are meeting Michael Gove this week include the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, the Big Firms Group and the CBA. These practitioner groups are going in the hope that they can persuade Gove to put a temporary stay on the latest cuts until there is a full and frank review of the legal justice system.
The truth is that they are probably going more in hope than expectation. Gove is proving just as popular in his new role as he was in his Minister of Education role previously, and as the government seem hellbent on bringing in cuts right across the board in health, law, education and social services, there seems little prospect of them taking any notice of a few solicitors associations.
There was a further rally by legal groups in Manchester outside the Crown Court, and there the solicitors voted to make further protest moves if there was no resolution on Thursday by withdrawing completely from duty solicitor work.
Prospects do not look rosy at all and the threat to the legal justice system by these cuts is very real. The solicitors and legal associations have every right to protest and protect the interests of many of the most vulnerable in our society but whether their protests fall on deaf ears remains to be seen.
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