Government proposals for Crown court means testing could deny vulnerable people access to justice and are being ‘rushed in’ too quickly, the Law Society said today.

Chancery Lane said the Ministry of Justice has failed to consider the economic climate, which has seen many people build up excessive debts in the downturn.

Law Society legal aid manager Richard Miller said: ‘The Law Society is very concerned about the implications of this announcement as the proposed eligibility thresholds could deny vulnerable people access to justice. While we have sympathy with the idea that those who are found guilty of criminal offences and can afford to pay should pay towards their defence, these proposals will place further pressure on those who simply cannot afford to pay.

‘The income limits are set too low and these proposals will deny access to justice to hard-working people whose earnings are not quite low enough to pass the means test, but who nevertheless will be required to pay unfeasible amounts by way of contributions.’

Under the plans, instead of taking a person’s debt into account at the point of assessment for eligibility, a person would need to make a ‘hardship application’.

The MoJ’s proposed shortened timetable for introducing the scheme will not allow for an effective evaluation, the Law Society added. It is proposed that five ‘tester courts’ trial the scheme in January 2010, before a national roll-out takes place in April and June 2010.

Miller added: ‘It is impossible to learn anything about the impact on clients or on the courts if they are going to introduce this country-wide within three to six months of the very start. Many Crown court cases take much longer than three months to even get heard, so this timetable is unrealistic.’