Jackson critical of legal aid cuts

According to an article in Legal Week, the author of the 2010 report on civil costs reform Lord Justice Jackson has spoken out against the government cuts to legal aid. Discussing his views of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill in a recent speech to the Cambridge Law Faculty, Jackson drew attention to the fact that his 2010 report highlighted "the vital necessity of making no further cutbacks in legal aid availability or eligibility". He also labelled the plans to withdraw legal aid for clinical negligence cases as "most unfortunate".

Jackson criticised the Law Society for dealing with the legal aid cuts and his model for costs reforms (both of which are contained in the bill) as if they were a "composite package". He suggested that the society should also be clearer about who its Sound Off for Justice campaign was representing - the public interest or conditional fee agreement (CFA) lawyers. Although claiming that both roles were "perfectly legitimate," he suggested that "it may be inauspicious to combine both roles in a single campaign".

In response, Law Society chief executive Des Hudson said: "We welcome Lord Justice Jackson's comments where he reiterated his opposition in principle to the government's cuts to legal aid. However, there are some of his remarks with which we strongly disagree. The society's opposition to the Jackson proposals is not driven by the interests of a group of lawyers but about claimants who have suffered injury and, under these proposals, may lose the ability to gain compensation... The availability of legal aid and the Jackson proposals are inextricably linked."