Threat to block asylum cash infuriates lawyers

Lawyers have expressed outrage at government proposals to penalise solicitors who take on asylum appeals considered unmeritorious by the courts.

The proposals allow High Court judges to impose costs penalties on lawyers who bring applications of 'no merit'.

This could lead to legal aid pay being withheld.

Lord Chancellor's Department minister Baroness Scotland said: 'I am committed to speeding up the appeals system while maintaining proper standards of fairness and ensuring it is not undermined by meritless applications made simply to cause delays.'

Appealing a failed case means that an asylum seeker is able to spend longer in the UK, and ministers are understood to think that unscrupulous lawyers take on hopeless cases knowing they will be paid for their work regardless of the outcome of the case.

Maria Fernandes, chairwoman of the Law Society's immigration law committee, said: 'At a time like this, when the supply of those willing to work legal aid cases is at a low, such an attack on lawyers is an outrage.

Such is the demand that we are in fact trying to turn such work away, not take on unmeritorious cases.'

She added: 'The most vulnerable clients will be left without any legal representation or advice due to increasing regulation based around cutting costs.'

Jawaid Luqmani, treasurer of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association, said: 'The criticism of lawyers taking on hopeless cases doesn't stand up to the evidence.

A further problem is that the distinction judges make between a case that just doesn't pass muster and one that is totally unmeritorious is significant, but this may be forgotten in the face of cost penalties.'

The penalties were among several amendments to the Nationality Immigration and Asylum Bill proposed last week, including a statutory review process to replace judicial review for cases refused leave to the Immigration Appeal Tribunal.

Andrew Towler