DESPERATE TIMES.
NEW MEASURES.
ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN.
The frontline of our justice system – legal aid criminal defence workers – is being decimated by years of neglect and underfunding.
Now is the time to demand change and rebalance the scales of justice before it’s too late.
The current trajectory legal aid is on only has one logical ending; there will be no one left doing the vital work of ensuring access to justice for all.
Legal aid is chronically underfunded and has been for years. Legal aid criminal defence solicitors are leaving the profession at an alarming rate, and there are not nearly enough young solicitors entering the sector to replace them. This means there are increasingly fewer solicitors available to defend people who have an absolute right to representation. As a result, the solicitors who remain are overworked and overstretched, and the system is falling apart at the seams.
WHY WE NEED
NEW MEASURES.
An independent review of criminal legal aid recommended to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) that a minimum lifeline of a 15% funding uplift was needed to keep our struggling criminal legal aid system running. But under Dominic Raab, the MoJ chose to ignore this recommendation in the final response to the review, instead bringing a 9% increase to criminal legal aid funding in 2022 and a further 2% by 2024. This is a real-terms cut to legal aid rates.
In December 2023, a judicial review was launched on the decision-making process in the MoJ under Dominic Raab, and why it ignored the minimum recommendations for a justice system that works for everyone. The High Court ruled that the government’s decision was irrational and that the Lord Chancellor did not make proper enquiries before making his decision.
Despite the High Court ruling in January 2024 that highlighted how “the system is slowly coming apart at the seams” and the government’s proposal for funding legal aid criminal defence was unlawful, the dial has not moved.
SO, WE MUST MOVE IT.
HOW WE WILL
DEFEND LEGAL AID.
The sector has been underfunded for so long that the only way forward is to organise, unionise and begin working together to defend legal aid and the sector as a whole.
The legal aid criminal defence system is currently on its knees, and it is only a matter of time before there is no one left doing this vital work. By the whole legal worker community coming together to join Unite, we will be able to rebuild the system, pillar by pillar.
PILLAR 1
Act with one voice on the issues facing legal aid criminal defence workers, to give the sector a voice the Government cannot ignore any longer.
PILLAR 2
Demand better pay and conditions for those working in the criminal defence legal aid sector so that talent is retained.
TO #DEFENDLEGALAID
WE MUST
Present a united voice
Increase pressure on the new government and decision-makers to make positive changes
Re-balance the system for the benefit of all.
We need all legal workers who have a stake in ensuring the criminal defence legal aid system remains viable to come together. Join Unite, and work together to defend legal aid to achieve better pay and conditions, protect jobs and attract new talent, and keep legal aid working for the benefit of all.