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HARD to access legal aid is creating an “unacceptably high risk of miscarriages of justice,” MPs have warned.
As many as half of defendants in magistrates’ courts facing prison sentences could be appearing without a lawyer and be forced to defend themselves, the justice committee said yesterday.
They found the means-tested financial eligibility threshold for criminal legal aid in the court to be “shockingly low,” fixed in 2009 despite prices rising by 64 per cent since then.
A defendant earning the national minimum wage may be earning too much to be eligible for legal aid, the committee added.
They called on the government to increase the threshold to reflect inflation and the cost of living.
Committee chair Andy Slaughter said: “Put simply, declining availability of legal aid and increasing levels of self-representation is creating an unacceptably high risk of miscarriages of justice and undermines the efficient administration of the courts.”
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