ON July 30 1949 the Legal Aid and Advice Act was passed, adding another pillar to the growing welfare state under Clement Attlee’s Labour government. However, like many public services, it is in crisis due to cuts in funding.

Criminal justice solicitor Lucy Osborn has specialised in criminal defence work for many years and spoke about her concern over what she described as a “broken” justice system.

“Everybody needs legal aid — it’s fundamental to our society and access to justice should be there for everyone. Sadly, that’s not the case. If you earn over £236 a week you are unlikely to receive legal aid in a magistrate’s court.”

Magistrate’s courts are lower courts for minor offences or preliminary hearings for more serious hearings and the maximum sentencing is 12 months.

Osborn advised that legal aid can cover the cost of a solicitor but only for the first hearing — after that you are on your own.

“There’s no-one to tell you about court procedures, whether you should be pleading guilty or not, the sentence you could be facing and it’s a daunting prospect, one that no-one should face on their own,” she added.

“Apart from the one-off offenders, there are also people that go to court week-in and week-out and those are the people that basically I deal with.

“They are a mixture of all sorts but mostly I would say are suffering from some sort of affliction — whether it’s alcoholism, drug misuse, mental health problems, homelessness — they’re vulnerable and they need more support and that support is being withdrawn at quite a rapid rate.”

When asked what needs to change she replied: “I would say that money needs to be put into the system. That’s true, I understand, of all publicly funded services but without it our system is going to continue to be broken.”

Legal aid spending has reduced since 1990, however, these cuts have escalated dramatically since 2013 when Chris Grayling introduced the Legal Aid, Sentencing Punishment of Offenders Act (Laspo) — slashing £320 million in 2014 with a continuing £220m each year since and there is more to come.

The criminal justice system is undoubtedly in crisis — and it’s not just about lawyers it’s also about the probation service.

Osborn shared her personal experience of representing people in the probation service: “some of the people are ordered to be subject to supervision by the probation service and an appointment can amount to a phone call by a probation officer that says ‘are you all right’ and he says ‘yeah I’m fine.’ 

“That is regarded as an appointment. Some of my clients haven’t heard from their probation officer in months and they are just allowed to continue on their way, it’s not supervision.”

Grayling was not only responsible for the devastating cuts to legal aid, but he privatised much of the probation system during his time as justice minister and is blamed by many for the dire situation the criminal justice system faces.

Cuts to mental health services are stretching it to breaking point and Osborn says this has a profound effect: “there are huge numbers of people suffering from mental health problems who find themselves embroiled in a criminal justice system without any help or support.”

The government also took the cheapest possible contract for court interpreters, which has resulted in a very poor service. Osborn explains: “I find that on a regular basis I’m representing someone from Romania, Poland or wherever it may be, and their interpreter simply doesn’t turn up so it has left people unable to understand very important procedures that have a profound effect on their lives.”

Added to this the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is chronically underfunded and its disclosure, preparation and evidence failings are all too well known in the headlines.

“We have cases that have discontinued simply because the CPS haven’t been able to provide the evidence that they should do and that’s the other side of the coin.

“Justice isn’t being done on that basis — there are guilty people who are not being prosecuted because of a lack of funding by the CPS. The only answer is to invest.”

Osborn is disappointed by the lack of rehabilitation services in prisons and blames this for the continued rise in reconviction rates.

“Once sent to Chelmsford prison, they sit there in their cell. Lots of people think it’s scandalous that prisoners get a television but that’s the only form of entertainment. There are no jobs and sometimes on certain days prisoners are locked up for 23 hours a day because there is a lack of prison staff to supervise association.”

Osborn describes how after leaving prison, ex-offenders are given a £48 grant but some people are released homeless only owning what they stand up in.

Though she revealed that the government recently changed that policy, so you must serve a 28-day sentence as minimum to be able to receive the £48 grant.

“If you receive a sentence of, say, two weeks, you serve your two weeks and then you come out and have nothing and the whole cycle begins again because these people have no home, they have no money, they have no support and so they go back to what they did before which was committing crime.”

Some of the clients that Osborn sees are facing criminal charges due to austerity policy cuts to social care. One example is a man who has severe learning difficulties who for years had a support worker who would come to his home daily to help him with his daily routine and managing his money.

That support was withdrawn due to funding cuts and after the loss of his support he was continually brought to court because he hadn’t paid for his TV licence.

Osborn told of how she resolved his issue after she represented him. “I took him to the bank we sat up a direct debit, his TV licence is now regularly paid and he no longer appears in court. I’m happy to do that but it’s not my job as his lawyer. He needs a social worker, he needs support and it simply isn’t there.”

Another gentleman who had worked all his life, became an alcoholic in his twilight years and as a result alienated his family.

Osborn described how she opened a joint bank account with him because each time he was sent to prison, she would be able to send him money so he would be able to have a better standard of living while in prison.

“Towards the end of his life he became gravely ill. He was taken to hospital, I was the only person who went to see him, there were three people at his funeral, I was one of them and two of my colleagues to make up the numbers.”

The last person she spoke about was a long-time homeless alcoholic man who is subject to an anti-social behaviour order which tells him he must not drink in a public place or have an open vessel of alcohol.

“He does everything on the street, including drinking, and therefore he has breached his anti-social behaviour order in excess of 50 times.”

The numerous times he has spent in prison has accumulated to nine-and-a-half years, essentially for having an open can of lager.

Osborn advised that he has cost the taxpayer millions, but if a social worker had been involved when his problems first arose, the cost would have been a fraction of what it is now.

“He continues to be in and out of prison and that will carry on until he dies. It’s wrong, it shouldn’t be like this. My job is to be a lawyer not to be a social worker. 

“The last man in question I have been to the housing department, the bank and the benefits agency with him. I’ve taken him to the foodbank, I’ve done everything that other support workers should be supporting him with. The support is just not there and, as I say, it is just wrong.”