Sample Solution

no further relevant points of law by searching through databases which are significant to this area of law.

Time Taken Overall, the research trail and essay took eight hours.

Essay Question:

In this essay I am going to discuss the impact of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO Act) on the legal system and whether this piece of legislation was necessary to be passed. The main issues that arose when this act was passed were the consequences that it had on legal funding and thus the effect this had on society. The LASPO Act 2012 was introduced by the government with one of the aims being to decrease funding for legal aid drastically, this act also amended other areas of the law such as; bail, sentencing and offences, even creating new ones. In other words, it abolished the categories for legal aid that were set out in the Access to Justice Act 1999 .

Legal Aid is free legal assistance that is funded by the government using public funds. Since this act was passed, there have been severe cuts in legal aid. This is because the government felt that legal aid had expanded too much and was available for an extensive amount of cases. This led to problems in the courts as cases were being brought to court when they did not need to be and in some cases, the courts are not able to give the best remedy to the problem. For example, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) may have been a better alternative. Moreover, the government felt that the public may have been taking advantage of this funding and using it when it was not entirely necessary in certain cases. Another reason for this act being passed, in particular in legal aid cuts was due to the coalition government as they wanted justice to be ‘simpler’ by resolving disputes without going to court and they felt this would help society. They felt legal aid should only be given to those who really need it and only used when entirely necessary.