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Top barristers slam 'cuts before justice'

Supreme Court judge: Erosion of aid a great disappointment

Barristers led a renewed attack yesterday on Con-Dem gutting of the legal aid system, accusing the government of putting "cuts before justice."

The Bar Council, which represents barristers across England and Wales, railed against bull-headed Justice Secretary Chris Grayling as his department officially closed its public consultation on the cuts.

Almost every professional body in the sector is now pitted against the government.

Mr Grayling aims to cull £220m a year from the government's legal aid budget, but critics warn his changes would cut off up to three-quarters of all cases currently qualifying for legal aid.

People appealing decisions on benefit sanctions, points of education law, consumer protection and clinical negligence will all lose out under the plans.

Claimants must have a disposable income of less than £315 a month and less than £1,000 in assets to receive full funding.

Benefit claimants would no longer be automatically eligible and pensioners would have to chip in from their own savings.

Bar Council chairwoman Maura McGowan said yesterday they had tried to engage with the government "openly and honestly" to resolve the issue.

"It is now clear that the government has never sought to match that intention," she said. "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it has put cuts before justice.

"What we have seen instead is the denigration of thousands of members of the profession, who work hard in the public interest, whether in civil or criminal courts, and have had to endure deeper cuts than anywhere else in the public sector."

"What is going on now is the opposite of everything that many people in my generation hoped for in the legal profession," Supreme Court deputy president Baroness Hale told hundreds at the Young Legal Aid Lawyers society just days ago.

"The steady and precipitous erosion of the legal aid and access to justice scheme is one of the great disappointments of my declining years."

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