{"id":32677,"date":"2018-03-24T09:48:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T09:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/?p=32677"},"modified":"2019-04-17T17:13:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T17:13:58","slug":"struggling-families-are-being-disqualified-from-justice-law-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/struggling-families-are-being-disqualified-from-justice-law-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling families are being disqualified from justice: Law Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.familylawweek.co.uk\/site.aspx?i=ed68394\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.familylawweek.co.uk\/bin_1\/bannertest3.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p id=\"path\"><a href=\"site.aspx?i=ho0\">Home<\/a> &gt; <a href=\"site.aspx?i=fo24532\">News<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"hed\">President calls for restoration of means test to its 2010 real-terms level<\/p>\n<p>Poverty-hit families are being denied vital legal help, the Law Society of England and Wales has revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Law Society president Joe Egan said: <\/p>\n<p class=\"ind\">&#8220;No-one in modern society should have to choose between accessing the justice system and a minimum living standard.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The financial eligibility test for civil legal aid is disqualifying people from receiving badly-needed legal advice and representation, even though they are already below the poverty line.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He was speaking on the publication of a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lawsociety.org.uk\/news\/stories\/priced-out-of-justice-legal-aid-means-test-report\/\"><strong>new report<\/strong> <\/a><\/strong>commissioned by the Law Society and produced by Professor Donald Hirsch of Loughborough University.<\/p>\n<p>The report&#8217;s central finding is that the means testing of legal aid is set at a level that requires many people on low incomes to make contributions to legal costs that they could not afford while maintaining a socially acceptable standard of living. In particular:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>At the maximum level of disposable income at which legal aid is allowed, households have too little income to reach a minimum standard of living even before footing any legal bills. Typically, they have disposable incomes 10% to 30% too low to afford a minimum budget.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Even those below the disposable income limit, while eligible for legal aid, are required to make a contribution to legal costs, unless their income is extremely low. Some households who can afford less than half of a minimum budget must still contribute to legal expenses. This includes households whose income would only be just enough to pay for food, heating, travel and housing costs, even before meeting other expenses such as clothing, household goods and personal care items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Law Society is asking the government to restore the means test to its 2010 real-terms level, and to conduct a review to consider what further changes are required to address the problems exposed by this report.<br \/>Joe Egan said: <\/p>\n<p class=\"ind\">&#8220;This report is hard evidence that people with less income than they need, some below the poverty line, are unable to get the help that they need through legal aid in order to access justice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The position has been getting progressively worse, because the means test thresholds have been frozen since 2010, while the cost of living, of course, has not. Action is long overdue.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Further hardship is caused by the fact that, even for people on the lowest incomes who rely on means-tested benefits, there is a capital means test that treats the equity in their homes as funds available towards legal costs.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Egan added: <\/p>\n<p class=\"ind\">&#8220;We are calling on the Ministry of Justice to review the means testing regime in accordance with their obligations under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO). We are also asking that they exempt those on means-tested benefits from capital assessment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Professor Hirsch said: <\/p>\n<p class=\"ind\">&#8220;Millions of households in Britain today struggle to make ends meet, even when they include someone in work, often because of part-time, low-wage or irregular earnings. Yet in general, the legal aid system requires working people to pay their legal costs, either in full or by making a contribution that low earners would find hard or impossible to afford.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those who are out of work are generally covered by legal aid, but may be excluded if they own their homes. The assumption that someone could sell their home to cover a legal bill is out of line with other forms of state means-testing \u2013 such as help with care costs, where the value of your home is ignored if you or your partner still live in it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For the report, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lawsociety.org.uk\/news\/stories\/priced-out-of-justice-legal-aid-means-test-report\/\"><strong>click here<\/strong><\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>23\/3\/18<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"clear: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.familylawweek.co.uk\/site.aspx?i=ed188915\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/contact-us\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/footer-300x100.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"200\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/footer-300x100.png 300w, https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/footer-150x50.png 150w, https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/footer.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home &gt; News President calls for restoration of means test to its 2010 real-terms level Poverty-hit families are being denied vital legal help, the Law Society of England and Wales has revealed. Law Society president Joe Egan said: &#8220;No-one in modern society should have to choose between accessing the justice system and a minimum living &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/struggling-families-are-being-disqualified-from-justice-law-society\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Struggling families are being disqualified from justice: Law Society&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Struggling families are being disqualified from justice: Law Society - Dominic Levent Solicitors Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/struggling-families-are-being-disqualified-from-justice-law-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Struggling families are being disqualified from justice: Law Society - Dominic Levent Solicitors Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Home &gt; News President calls for restoration of means test to its 2010 real-terms level Poverty-hit families are being denied vital legal help, the Law Society of England and Wales has revealed. 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