Share economic evidence to shape civil legal aid reform
We’re looking for legal aid providers to take part in economic research to help us capture the full scale of the sustainability threat facing access to justice.
We have already engaged with a number of housing legal aid providers, and we're still looking for more, particularly in the private practice sector.
We're also calling on family legal aid providers to help us with the next stage of our research.
Many people in England and Wales cannot access the legal help they’re entitled to because providers are being forced to give up legal aid work or close their doors completely.
Sharing hard economic evidence such as revenue and cost information will be key to convincing the government why it needs to put sustainable funding into our justice system.
This is our opportunity to help key decision-makers in the government understand what is going wrong in our civil legal aid system, and which reforms could make a difference.
Neither the Law Society nor the government will see any individual provider's data.
A valuable chance to strengthen access to justice
The Ministry of Justice is carrying out economic analysis as part of its review on civil legal aid, to explore options for improving the long-term sustainability of the civil legal aid system.
To make sure the government understands how much investment is needed in fees for a sustainable base of legal aid providers, the Law Society is commissioning our own independent research.
This is a real opportunity for providers to help key decision-makers understand:
- where the key issues are
- what specific changes will make a real difference
- how much funding is needed for meaningful reform
Who can take part?
We’re looking for civil legal aid providers in all areas of law to help us build a strong evidence base, with an emphasis on housing and family law.
We've already engaged with housing legal aid providers and are now embarking on the next stage of our research: family law providers.
By sharing hard evidence and real-life examples, your organisation can help identify specific reforms that will make a difference where it is most needed.
How to take part: sharing economic evidence
You can help by sharing financial information associated with legal aid work, such as revenue and cost information.
Once you've signed up, our research partner, Frontier Economics, will:
- contact your firm with a data template to fill out as far as possible
- arrange an interview to discuss the evidence in detail as well as any relevant contextual information
Frontier Economics will work flexibly with practitioners to make sure the information is as reflective as possible of your current work, and minimises the burden of data collection.
How we’ll use the evidence
Neither the Law Society nor the Ministry of Justice will see any individual provider's data.
All the evidence will be anonymised and aggregated before we share it with the Ministry of Justice as evidence for its civil legal aid review.