Legal Aid cuts will hit thousands in Birmingham

The Law Society have spoken out about their fear that Birmingham will be one of the worst hit cities in the UK by the proposed cuts to legal aid, as the Birmingham Mail reported yesterday.

Birmingham could see more than 6,500 cases due to be heard in court, collapse, with the city’s legal firms standing to lose more than £1.1m in lost business as well.

Areas of law which stand to be largely affected are that of divorce, employment, clinical negligence and family contact cases, seeing thousands of Birmingham residents in a legal black hole. Those that have an opinion and want to save the right for everyone to free legal advice and representation, are urged to join the Sound Off For Justice campaign to help stop these proposals being passed.

Richard Miller, head of Legal Aid at the Law Society, comments, “By cutting legal aid funding, access to the courts, legal advice and representation will be drastically reduced. Those needing help in cases of medical negligence, divorce, employment and welfare will no longer have access to justice. These people will effectively be silenced, as their cases will go unheard without the support of a legal aid lawyer.”