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News

Legal aid: judges, lawyers and victims demand that next government stops "miscarriages of justice"

updated on 06 May 2015

The government’s legal aid cuts have been condemned in an open letter signed by over 100 judges, lawyers, victims and peers who feel that the issue of legal aid has not been raised enough in the run up to the general election.

The legal aid cuts saw the number of cases supported by legal aid fall from 81,792 to 2,423 over a one-year period - meaning that thousands of people are being denied access to justice because they cannot afford to pay the legal fees on their own. The letter, published in The Guardian, calls on those who will form the new government after Thursday’s general election to put a stop to the "miscarriages of justice" that are currently being allowed to happen.

The letter closes: "We call upon the next government to abandon the highly controversial restructuring of criminal defence, restore legal help to the many currently without redress and to establish a royal commission to investigate the current crisis regarding the diminution of access to justice."