Today in the News: Legal Aid Cuts

I've been looking in the news a lot lately, and especially after my trip to Nottingham, I've been a lot more aware of the need for legal aid and the effect that it has on people in the legal profession.  Particularly, it is Criminal lawyers (both Solicitors and Barristers) that are largely effected by recent cuts, as it is no longer a particularly lucrative profession to go into.

When I was little, I really liked the look of being a Criminal Barrister - now the dream is different, ideally I'd like to be a Senior Partner in Slaughter and May (Commercial Law, mostly) by the time I'm 50.  There are three reasons for the career change:

1) mild stage fright (not particularly good for standing up in court 24/7)

2) I realised I like talking and interacting with people (I want a more client based career)

3) money.  I can earn about four times as much by working in Commercial Law than Criminal Law.

And it's not getting any better.  This week, legal aid is being cut by £350million which means that people who are in trouble with the law are faced with less choice if they don't qualify for aid.  They have to scrape together the funds for legal representation, or they have to represent themself.  As a person with a little stage fright, I can sympathise with these people: I don't know how a person can be expected to represent themself with no legal knowledge whatsoever, under the immense pressure of knowing that if they lose then they may have to go to prison.  The stakes are too high to have people gambling with their own freedom.

However, I'm not going to start having a go at politicians - everybody is being cut, nobody wants it to be them next - and the legal aid cuts make it so that there is no aid available for people needing advice for
"divorce, child custody, clinical negligence, welfare, employment, immigration, housing, debt, benefit and education" (Guardian) - this means that there is still legal aid available for the majority of criminal matters, though means tested.

So what we have to ask ourselves is what matters more: defending the poorest in society in court, or digging ourselves out of this depression. Practically, morally and as a human being, it's the former - but I can see why politicians feel that there is space for cuts. Maybe these cuts will increase the odds of marriages staying together, as divorce is now a non-legal-aid case? But in the end, it looks like the future is bleak for Criminal Lawyers of any sort - with legal cuts now, it's unlikely that funding will be pumped back into the system. So unless you're particularly moral, and really want to get up and get things done in a courtroom, Criminal law is probably not the best field to go in right now...