Law Society initiatives to reinforce access to justice

Law Gazette carries an article reporting that the Law Society vice-president has outlined initiatives to bolster access to justice if proposed legal aid reforms are passed, as well as stating that they have not given up opposition to the cuts.

Lucy Scott-Moncrieff said that the Society has given ‘a lot of thought’ to what can be done if scope cuts go ahead, and highlighted a scheme in which law students would help people claiming benefits.

The student scheme (to be piloted by the College of Law in York with the Society and LawWorks) involves accompanying claimants to work capability assessments, to take a note of what happens during the assessment to provide evidence for use in any appeal.

They also hope to work with Northumbria University students to produce standard GP letters advising them of the information they should provide to assist assessments.

Law Society outlines initiatives to reinforce access to justice - Law Gazette

We have run trials attending WCA medicals and completing ESA50s.  Attending medicals is not as useful or as easy as it may appear.  ESA85s often don’t fully reflect the claimant’s limitations because the HCP hasn’t recorded the complete response. It is crucial that every question the HCP asks is recorded together with the claimants full response.  It is not easy to get all that information down as well as record relevant observations which also play a role in HCP’s conclusions so have to be noted.  Knowledge of what the assessment is intended to measure is important…otherwise the person attending may fail to record key information.  Volunteers would need to have a good knowledge of ESA/WCA/Guidance to HCPs.  We used experienced benefit caseworkers rather than volunteers. If claimants subsequently receive a negative decision they still have to wait 15-18 months for the appeal to be concluded.

Assisting with completion of ESA50s achieves better outcomes at an earlier stage and takes less time but again it requires a good level of knowledge of WCA descriptors/caselaw.  We had a 100% success rate when we helped clients complete ESA50s and many were not called to a medical at all.  A couple of hours at the ESA50 stage .

There is nothing wrong with using volunteers but they have to be properly trained/experienced.  We use law students as volunteers but they have to undergo intensive training because most have very little knowledge of welfare benefit law.

We adopt a similar approach,

However the LSC still maintain that this type of work is not legally complex and refuse to accept ESA50 work is a justified matter start.