Post by nickd on Apr 2, 2012 12:07:05 GMT 1
The Tories had a solution to the legal aid funding problem well before the General Election
What happened to it?
Listen to Conservative Henry Bellingham from the very start of this video. He talks of legal aid being a 'pillar of the welfare state' and says he has a vision, he mentions finding solutions - the need for 'imaginative ideas', these including plans to look at raising £40 millions pounds by implementing ideas put forward by the Bar Council, considering the principle of 'polluter Pays', extending 'before the event' insurance & looking at a French system of using one bank account which raises hundred of millions of pounds from interest charges on client accounts.
And read the following article Posted by Legal Action Group in *News, Legal Aid, Legal aid on November 2nd, 2009
Henry Bellingham MP, then the shadow justice minister
Posted by Legal Action Group in *News, Legal Aid, Legal aid on November 2nd, 2009
Shadow justice minister, Henry Bellingham MP, has outlined his plans for legal aid if the Conservatives were to win the general election in May or June next year. In an interview with LAG, he said that he sees legal aid as ‘one of the pillars of the welfare state’. He says that when the economy improves, the Conservatives would like to bring in extra money to legal aid. He is also looking at innovative ways to supplement the legal aid budget immediately.
His plans include borrowing an idea from France. ‘La Carpa’ is the French system of having one bank account held by the government, into which all the money French lawyers hold for clients is paid. The money in the account earns interest which goes towards the French equivalent of legal aid. Henry Bellingham said that as much as 300 million euros has been raised by the fund in the past, but admits that due to historically low interest rates the amounts earned currently are much lower. He said: ‘It is interesting to note that both Belgium and Italy are looking at similar systems.’
We at LAG are aware that a scheme like the French one operates in the state of Victoria in Australia. Money from the scheme there goes towards funding public interest cases. Henry Bellingham acknowledges that it is important to look at a fair mechanism for distributing the money. He believes the Access to Justice Foundation, which was established last year to distribute money for pro bono cases (which lawyers do on a voluntary basis), might be an appropriate body to distribute the money.
The current government favours a voluntary approach to firms donating interest from the money they hold for clients. So far this approach has met with little success, although some large city firms do donate some money to charitable causes. We believe it would be complicated to set up the proposed system, but as long as the money was used to pay for additional services and not just to replace money in the legal aid budget, it would be worth pursuing.
How their stance on funding legal aid has changed since 2009
www.yell.com/solicitors/blog/tory-shadow-promises-more-cash-for-legal-aid/