Legal aid is public money that pays for lawyers for people who could not otherwise afford them. Almost every democracy has some form of it, and almost every democracy argues about how much to spend. Opinion pieces urging governments not to end a successful programme are a regular part of that argument.
What legal aid covers
Criminal legal aid, which pays for defence lawyers for people accused of crimes, is the best known. It is linked to the right to a fair trial: in the United States, the Supreme Court held in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) that states must provide counsel to defendants in serious criminal cases who cannot afford it. Civil legal aid covers matters such as housing, debt, family breakdown, immigration and benefits, and is usually far more limited.
In the US, the Legal Services Corporation, created by Congress in 1974, funds civil legal aid organisations across the country. In the UK, legal aid is run separately in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
When legal aid is cut
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), which took effect in England and Wales in 2013, removed many areas of civil law from legal aid, including most private family cases and much housing, debt and welfare advice. The government's own post-implementation review in 2019 acknowledged that more people were representing themselves in family courts and announced some changes. Critics argued the cuts simply moved costs elsewhere, to courts slowed by unrepresented parties and to public services dealing with problems that escalated.
The arguments
- For funding: legal problems tend to cluster and escalate; early advice can prevent homelessness or family breakdown; equality before the law means little without access to lawyers.
- Against expansion: budgets are limited; some argue that simpler procedures, online courts and advice services are cheaper ways to help.
Why it matters for inquests and inquiries
In Northern Ireland, families seeking answers about deaths during the Troubles have relied on legal representation at inquests and inquiries, often funded publicly. Whether families can afford lawyers affects how far they can test the state's account, a point made repeatedly in the long campaign for an inquiry into Pat Finucane's death.