Legal Update: Legal Q&A - Legal aid for victims of domestic violence
Coram Children's Legal Centre
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Q. Is there going to be an appeal against the High Court's decision to reject the challenge against the lawfulness of the government's rules on legal aid for victims of domestic violence?
A. It has been reported that Rights of Women has lodged an appeal against the decision of the High Court to reject its application to quash Regulation 33 of the Civil Legal Aid (Procedure) Regulations 2012 - the provision which sets out the types of evidence required to support an application for legal aid in domestic violence cases. Rights of Women had argued that Regulation 33 exceeds the powers conferred under section 12 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LAPSO 2012), as it introduces far more restrictive eligibility criteria for legal aid for victims of domestic violence than that intended by parliament under the statute.
The appeal, which has received the backing of the Law Society, coincides with the publication by the Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) of evidence that legal aid restrictions are blocking victims of domestic abuse seeking justice and exercising their rights. The CAB report - Victims of Domestic Abuse: Struggling for Support? - finds that more than 60 per cent of its advisers have found the changes regarding legal aid since April 2013 to have affected the help they have been able to give domestic abuse clients. Thirty-five per cent of the advisers stated that it had affected "to a great extent" the help they have been able to give.
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