Old Palace Yard, Westminster
Lawyers Funeral for Legal Aid: On Wednesday 22nd May 2013 the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association organised a protest with a mock funeral, rally and mock trial outside Parliament against government plans to severely restrict legal aid.
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) had already cut huge areas out of legal aid, including many family, employment, housing and debt problems. This was a cost-saving exercise which greatly reduced access to justice for the great majority of people.
The government were now proposing to end the right of legal aid clients to chose their solicitor with the work going to the cheapest bid under ‘price-competitive tendering’. As well as bankrupting many smaller law first this would open up “provision of legal aid to large non-legal companies, including Eddie Stobart and Tesco, and remove the ability of those in need of legal aid to chose appropriate specialists in the legal area involved.”
The event began with a parade by a marching jazz band leading a coffin with the meassage ‘RIP LEGAL AID’ carried by black-clad pallbearers wearing legal wigs, with the Scales of Justice in attendance.
Then came the speeches – very many of them, but at least there was a time-keeper ensuring they kept to a 5 minute limit – and some were quite amusing.
Among the speakers were politicians including Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn, and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, senior legal figures and some who had benefited from legal aid, including Gerry Conlan, one of the Guildford 40, a member of the family of Jean Charles De Menezes, Susan Matthews, mother of Alfie Meadows and Breda Power, the daughter of Billy Power, one of the Birmingham 6.
Others included Clive Stafford Smith, the founder of Reprieve, Blur drummer Dave Rowntree (a qualified solicitor) and QC Helena Kennedy. There are pictures of most of the speakers on My London Diary
After all the speeches there was a summing up by leading barrister John Cooper QC after which the whole assembly delivered its verdict on Grayling, ‘guilty as charged’.
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