Mr Justice Collins & IS: good legal aid news for family litigants & protected parties says David Burrows
Section 10 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) and its exceptional case funding (ECF) was described by the Ministry of Justice as the safety net for clients who need representation in civil proceedings (mostly family law, housing and immigration). Until IS v The Director of Legal Aid Casework & Anor [2015] EWHC 1965 (Admin), [2015] All ER (D) 149 (Jul)—judgment handed down on 15 July 2015—the net’s mesh seemed large. Even since IS the availability of legal aid and the process of applying for it will be no breeze—for lay applicants and legal advisers alike. However, IS will be a substantial step forward for such applicants, and a means for civil legal aid lawyers proportionally to improve their work-base, so viciously altered since April 2013.
In June 2014 Collins J found the Lord Chancellor’s original Exceptional Funding Guidance (Non-Inquests) (Guidance I: issued by the Lord Chancellor under LASPO, s 4(3)(b)) to be unlawful ( Gudanaviciene v [LAA] [2014] EWHC 1840 (Admin),
