Minister under fire over price of justice

Last week a Gazette-sponsored Law Society debate on civil justice looked at the Woolf reforms and whether access to legal help and advice is now easier to find.

Jeremy Fleming reports on a hard night for a government minister

'Those who predicted doom and gloom have been proved wrong...

Before the Woolf reforms, civil justice was a slow and unequal business, but now, following the revolution in civil justice, cases are settling more quickly, and issued claims are down by 23%.'Lord Chancellor's Department minister David Lock set the cat among the pigeons at the opening of last week's Gazette-sponsored debate - 'What price civil justice?'.

On legal aid, Mr Lock maintained that the government was right to recognise the need for reform: 'Those who said "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" were wrong - ultimately, it was the consumers who were suffering from the old system.'Ashley Holmes, head of legal affairs at the Consumers Association, said the government reforms mean good news and bad news.

The good news is that civil justice will benefit from the co-ordinated targeting of services according to need, better value for taxpayers, and the justice system is now exposed to 'the great value of quality-assured services'.Mr Holmes also praised the decision to raise the upper limit on cases in the small claims courts, which he said are the mostpopular courts with the public.

However, he said increases in fees are still a problem: 'Court fees need to be abolished for all small claims.'He added that the government needs to do more homework on conditional fee agreements (CFAs), adding: 'On the face of it, no win, no fee equals more choice; however, in practice, it is incomprehensible and unworkable on the ground.'Shoena York, a solicitor at Hammersmith Law Centre, said many of her clients are poorly educated or do not speak good English.

Such clients struggle with the bureaucracy the law centre is forced to put them through, she said.

Ms York exhorted the government to allow not-for-profit agencies to carry out the increased work required of them free from the shackles of red tape.

This is, she argued, the best way of creating real access to justice for her clients.Robert Dingwall, professor of sociology at Nottingham University, said society is undergoing a 'medicalisation', by which he meant that the internal market reforms that started in the health service are now spreading to other professions such as the law and universities.While naturally welcoming increased access to justice and more efficient public services, Prof Dingwall said he is concerned by what he described as the 'legalisation' of society.

This, he thought, could foster a culture in which individuals come to think of the law as the answer to their everyday problems, leaving them incapable of dealing with 'the lottery of life'.Baroness Sally Greengross, the former director-general of Age Concern, called for the introduction of one-stop shops offering advice for the elderly and other fragile members of society on a host of issues - common sense and legal - with which they have difficulties.

She said it is important to focus on the needs of those who are genuinely cut off from the justice system, rather than the affluent who may use their time in retirement to pursue disputes obsessively.Mr Lock faced a barrage of criticisms.

Richard Miller, acting director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, asked him how poorly educated clients with little English could be expected to persuade lawyers that their cases merit CFAs.Law Society Council member Eileen Pembridge said law firms were 'turning away from the old legal aid work in droves' following the introduction of CFAs, because it had become 'commercially ruinous to do this work'.Louise Christian, a partner at London-based human rights firm Christian Fisher, said the discussion had been too uncritical of government reforms.

She said many who bring claims against government bodies through her firm are not being assisted by the increased bureaucracy.

The new internal market is a false one, she continued, and lawyers are 'being turned into insurance brokers'.Mr Lock defended the government's record fiercely.

'There is no evidence that solicitors are turning away from the Legal Services Commission except insofar as they fall short of quality controls,' he said.

Mr Lock said he had received 'no letters from the public unable to find lawyers to take on CFAs', whereas he had mailbags full of letters from lawyers complaining about the withdrawal of legal aid.It is as much the duty of solicitors to investigate clients' cases to discover whether they are worth entering into a CFA, as it is up to the client to persuade the lawyer of the case, he said, adding: 'Lawyers are rewarded for investing in riskier cases by uplifts in their fees at the end of cases.'Mr Holmes said he 'unhappily agreed with the minister'.

It is in lawyers' interests to help their clients; but he said the experience to do so would develop as the reforms bedded down.