On 19th September the High Court ruled that Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Chris Grayling acted ‘unlawfully’ in the way he consulted on plans to change Criminal Legal Aid. Mr Justice Burnett said that the Ministry’s failure to disclose the findings of two key reports on proposals to introduce new dual criminal legal aid contracts was ‘so unfair as to result in illegality’. Quashing the Lord Chancellor’s decision to limit the number of duty provider contracts to 525, Mr Justice Burnett ruled that the proposals be scrapped and the consultation should be run again.
The Judicial Review by the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association and the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association challenges the reforms proposed in the Ministry's February 2014 consultation.The judgment can be found here.
Trinity Silk, Francis FitzGibbon Q.C. provides his views on the judgment in his blog.
Francis FitzGibbon Q.C. is a member of Trinity Chambers' Criminal, Regulatory and Immigration practice groups.