Information below from Rights of Women:

The Ministry of Justice is proposing to make some significant changes to legal aid in England and Wales which include:

• Removing areas of law from the scope of legal aid so that legal aid will no longer be available to deal with those issues. Under the proposals private children law (such as applications for contact and residence) financial relief (financial arrangements following marriage breakdown), immigration law (including the domestic violence rule) and welfare benefits law will no longer be in scope. Those with problems in these areas of law will have to pay privately for advice, seek advice from charities or other NGOs or represent themselves.

• Limiting the scope of legal aid in relation to debt and housing so that it is now only available when a person's home is immediately at risk.

• Changing the rules on eligibility to make it more difficult to qualify for legal aid (including for those on welfare benefits).

• Reducing the amounts paid to lawyers (this will further reduce the number of providers doing legally aided work).

The announcements have said that women experiencing domestic violence will still be able to get legal aid. This is not the case. While legal aid will still be available for domestic violence injunctions (non-molestation orders, occupation orders or forced marriage protection orders), it will only be available in related family proceedings where the applicant is applying for an injunction, was given an injunction within the last 12 months or where her abuser was given a criminal conviction (which is not spent). Women whose abusers are given cautions, who do not apply for or are not given injunctions, whose abusers are given restraining orders from the criminal courts (e.g. following acquittal) will not be able to get legal aid for help arranging child contact or their finances on divorce. Women who do not take legal action against their perpetrator (because for example, they go into refuge or relocate) will not be able to get legal aid for help arranging child contact or their finances on divorce. Cohabitees will not be able to get help dealing with their finances following relationship breakdown even where domestic violence is present. Women making applications for indefinite leave to remain under the domestic violence rule will also not be able to get legal advice and representation to prepare or present their case.

You can read the full consultation here.

The Rights of Women's summary of the proposed changes and what they will mean for those we support can be accessed here (PDF). I have put the Ministry of Justice arguments in favour of the changes alongside Rights of Women's concerns.

We urge you to join us in responding to this consultation. To take action please:

• Join Justice for All www.justice-for-all.org.uk and take part in their lobby of MPs on 12^th January.
• Read the attached document which gives our preliminary summary of the proposals and concerns. Email me with any arguments we have missed or additional concerns that you want us to raise or develop. We will incorporate your views into our response and into the template response we are developing.
• Respond to the consultation by 14^th February 2011 and write to the Minister responsible, Ken Clarke, now outlining your concerns.

Rights of Women will be developing surveys which will be available on our website shortly to collect evidence on what the consequences of the changes might be for us and those we support. When they are available I will email you to ask you to complete it and circulate it to others who are interested. We will be presenting the findings of our survey alongside our consultation response. We will also be developing a template consultation response to assist you make your voice heard, we will be circulating this in January 2011.

If you have any questions about the proposals please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. Please also circulate this email to other people and organisations, who might be interested,

Best wishes,

Catherine Briddick
Senior Legal Officer
Rights of Women
52-54 Featherstone Street
London EC1Y 8RT
Tel: 020 7251 6575/6
Fax:020 7490 5377
Textphone: 020 7490 2562
www.row.org.uk