Dear John,

Everyone should be entitled to their day in court, not just the rich and powerful. But an oversight in new ‘legal aid’ regulations is keeping some of the most marginalised people locked out, denying them a chance of justice. 

Legal aid is money made available for people who can’t afford lawyers’ fees. During the pandemic, changes were made to legal aid fees for asylum and immigration appeals without consultation or impact assessments.  

The unintended consequence is that it’s now harder for lawyers to get paid, meaning they can’t afford to take on complex cases like modern slavery and trafficking, leaving those seeking safety in the UK little hope of success.

Email your MP today, calling on them to strike down the regulations so the Government can rethink them to avoid this outcome.

The new regulations have almost tripled the legal aid fee – that’s the amount the State will pay a lawyer – for asylum and immigration cases, which sounds like a good thing.

But lawyers doing this work can only charge for actual time spent on the case where their work exceeds three times the value of the legal aid fee. So the amount of work they have to do to get paid properly has also almost tripled, actually making it more difficult for them to get paid and keep their firms alive.

This means they will be unlikely to take on more time-consuming appeals for people with complicated vulnerabilities – like trafficking victims and LGBT+ asylum seekers – because of the risk they won’t get paid, putting them in jeopardy too. 

And an appeal is usually a person’s last chance to stay in the country.

So regulations meant to make the system more sustainable have had the unintended effect of blocking people’s access to justice, which could also put their lives at risk.

The regulations must be suspended so proper consultation can take place to avoid these consequences.

Please email your MP today – it takes just a couple of minutes.

Thank you for your support.

Sam Grant

Policy and Campaigns Manager

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