By Jonathan Rayner


The Access to Justice Alliance (AJA) will next week step up opposition to the government's proposed civil legal aid reforms with a week of action, including protests outside courts.



The week launches at the House of Commons on 14 May, when Alan Beith MP, chairman of the constitutional affairs select committee, addresses AJA supporters. Earlier this month, the committee condemned the government's plans as 'reckless ', 'breathtakingly risky', and 'introduced too quickly, in too rigid a way and with insufficient evidence'.



This will be followed by marches and demonstrations outside venues such as Central London County Courts and Manchester Immigration Tribunal, and concerted lobbying of local councils.



In a separate development, the Gazette understands that the possibility of criminal defence solicitors in London boycotting magistrates' court work for two days is also under consideration.



In an open letter to mark the launch of the Ministry of Justice this week, the AJA, Law Society, Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG), Criminal Law Solicitors Association and Young Legal Aid Lawyers Group called on the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, to institute an immediate moratorium on the reforms in the wake of the committee's report and the Law Society-commissioned study from economists LECG, which said the reforms threatened the stability of many law firms (see [2007] Gazette, 3 May, 1).



LAPG director Richard Miller said the week of action would keep the threat to legal aid centre stage - and not lost in the 'political turmoil' of Tony Blair's expected announcement about stepping down as prime minister.



Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said: 'Many legal aid solicitors feel the government has abused them for too long. No one should be surprised by their frustration or determination.'



A Department for Constitutional Affairs spokeswoman said: 'These protests miss the basic point of the reforms. By maximising the value for money from the £2 billion spent each year on legal aid, we will be able to help as many people as possible, and be better able to shift resources from criminal to civil and family legal aid in the future.'