Andrew Walker argues that the abolition of civil legal aid will not serve the interests of justice and may even delays in the court system.

We now have it official. The Justice Secretary Mr. Clarke has announced the virtual abolition of civil legal aid as we know it. With a few limited exceptions all that will remain for family cases is care proceedings and domestic violence injunctions. As a solicitor in Leeds I am, quite frankly, mystified, especially at the timing.

This summer offensive by the government undoubtedly represents the most terrific attack on the legal aid system since it was formed with the intention of providing access to justice for those most vulnerable in society.

It comes at a time in their lives when they are facing the crisis of a family breakdown with serious issues concerning their children and finances. Many will be left to represent themselves in proceedings that are totally alien to them and will often find it impossible to present their case in a coherent manner.

This will not serve the interests of justice for such families and create huge delays in the court system that will inevitably increase costs. The Law Society has presented credible ways of saving costs within the existing system yet they have so far being ignored.

The government claims to promote the family and children in particular. Yet this attack achieves the opposite. Prime Minister Cameron attacks absent Fathers for avoiding their financial responsibilities yet, at the same time, makes the child support system bureaucratic and asks the parent with care to pay money up front to start the process when they are the ones suffering a financial crisis in the first place.

Graham Stowe Bateson’s family law solicitors in Leeds have for over thirty years served our clients with first class legal advice and representation, often to the most disadvantaged people in society, and where we can we have regularly given free legal help. We cannot sit back and let this destruction of our legal aid system continue.

In the words of a famous Field Marshal: “There is no other course open to us but to fight it out.  Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement.  With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end.  The safety of our homes and the Freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.”

Andrew Walker is the head of Grahame Stowe Bateson’s Family Law Department at its city centre office in Leeds.