I find it very interesting that whilst the outage of Marks & Spencer’s website due to a data hack made front line news a number of times, there has been zero mention of a website outage that is actually far more important: the Legal Aid Agency’s online portal. Both happened at very similar times. Not that many people know that.
Why does this matter?
Because this portal has been the only way decisions can be sought from the Legal Aid Agency, in relation to civil legal aid. This covers Court of Protection, but also family, community care, immigration and basically anything else other than crime. It’s how an application is made so you can get legal aid in the first place. But it’s also how you get funding for each stage in the proceedings, permission to instruct experts, decisions on changes in circumstances. For individuals this creates lots of issues. I give just a handful for illustrative purposes.
One of my clients, for example was awarded legal aid last year. But we have to apply for a continuation of that funding after each hearing. The system has been down for nearly 3 months now, and we were left to decide whether I would work, with a risk I’d be doing so for free, or whether I wouldn’t do any work and directions wouldn’t be complied with. We took the view that the former was better, but we weren’t actually given any guidance to help us make that decision.
Another of my clients received a significant back payment of his benefits. We are obligated to inform the Legal Aid Agency of changes in financial circumstances. But we have to do that through the portal. I think he’s likely to retain eligibility because this money should be disregarded by the Legal Aid Agency. Only they can make that decision, though. We are also in dispute about his capacity and we need an independent expert’s report to determine this. I can’t get one without the Legal Aid Agency’s approval. I actually contacted them about this one because the guidance said to do that if there was a need for a decision in a shorter timescale. Their response was, well, less than helpful. Progress on this case has, therefore, stalled.
In another case, I act for P’s mum, and we applied for legal aid before the system went down. That application is now lost, but we’ve been advised it will be honoured. P’s solicitors got papers later than us though, and because his finances are not straightforward, they do not have funding and so can’t really do anything at the moment. Again,progress has stalled. After all, it’s quite difficult to make progress in Court of Protection proceedings without P being represented.
I was also speaking to someone who works at the court who has received actual death threats because they’ve told someone to get legal advice but they can’t because the portal is down. Now I suspect this particular member of the public is misinformed or has been “fobbed off” a bit because it is possible to get legal aid funding at the moment if it is clear the eligibility requirements are met. It is just a lot harder.
Either way, though, it’s not anyone at the court’s fault and I really don’t condone any threatening behaviour to anyone. Especially people just trying to do their jobs.
My firm are fortunate because we don’t rely solely, or even mainly, on legal aid funding. Most of our departments don’t do any legal aid work so overall cash flow is ok. Other firms are not so lucky, though, and many are facing really hard decisions about how to pay their staff and other overheads. Legal aid margins are pretty limited anyway and many firms are only a few bad months away from insolvency at the best of times. More firms will likely close, and there isn’t that many out there anyway.
Livelihoods could be lost, alongside people losing their fundamental right to access justice because of a flaw in a computer system.
Now, full disclosure, the Legal Aid Agency has set up a system for contingency payments based on average monthly legal aid receipts for firms who are really struggling. So it is trying to prevent a complete system breakdown.
I have no idea what its systems for barristers are, though. Barristers are generally self-employed so their income is based on how much work they do. But at the moment they can’t bill for work they’ve done on Legal Aid cases either. They use the same computer system as solicitors. The one that is well and truly broken.
This is a computer system that has not been properly updated in years, and has been crying out for investment. My understanding is that this outage is as a result of weaknesses identified in a hack, but it seems like it was only a matter of time before something crashed it. Yet there was no contingency plan, it would seem.
Just another example of budget cuts impacting on the quality of fundamental services.
I think it’s interesting it’s not really made it into the mainstream news, though. It’s not a secret, the Legal Aid Agency have been transparent throughout and information is on their website. Does it just not make a good story? Is it the age old distaste for lawyers, and the common ideas people have about our wages (spoiler alert: we don’t all get 6 figures. I’m doing quite well but still haven’t paid off my student loans, despite being a two income, child free household).
I hope it’s not yet another sign of public services being devalued and underappreciated. I presume some people out there, even if they aren’t directly affected by this right now, are concerned about the impact this could have on access to justice…
In case it isn’t obvious from the fact I still haven’t identified the authority I used to work for, or the organisation I now work for, the views expressed on this blog are my own opinion and not the opinion of that local authority or organisation.