MERSEYSIDE has experienced an increase of nearly 7% more legal aid cases in the region on last year.
More than 32,000 cases of civil legal help were funded by legal aid in the Liverpool area in the last 12 months, according to the Legal Services Commission, 6.85% more than last year’s 30,352.
The national total was nearly 800,000, the greatest number of civil law acts of assistance in a year since the LSC was set up in 2000.
Legal aid clients in Liverpool city centre accounted for more than one third of all Merseyside cases with 11,167.
The Birkenhead area was next on the list with 4,436, followed by north Liverpool, with 3,905 cases. Formby and Southport had only 499 cases, followed by south Liverpool and south Wirral, with just over 550 cases each.
Matters for which people received legal aid help included debt, employment, housing, mental health, and family law.
Some 685,244 of the national total of new civil cases were delivered through face-to-face advisers, an 8% increase on last year.
The number of acts of assistance delivered through the LSC’s confidential legal helpline, rose a staggering 51% to 111,319.
Debt advice was an area of particular growth, up 15% on the previous year.
John Binks, acting regional director of the LSC North West region said: “The LSC works in partnership with a skilled and dedicated network of advice providers to help legal aid clients, some of whom are the most vulnerable people in society, to resolve their problems early. The rising number of people getting legal aid in civil matters represents a major achievement, not least because it was done within a fixed budget, representing good value for money for the taxpayer.�
But Law Society president Andrew Holroyd said: “Yes, the Legal Services Commission is getting a very good deal out of its legal aid lawyers.
“They are working harder and harder for less and less remuneration, but how long can we go on absorbing inflationary increases in the cost of practice with no increase, and indeed some cuts, in levels of pay?�