Struggling spouses who want to leave their well-off other halves find themselves in trouble because of impending changes to legal aid from 1st April 2013. If current plans go ahead, from 1st April 2013 there will be virtually no legal aid help at all to many people thinking of divorce or wanting help with children disputes and other areas of family law. The message we need to tell people is if you think you qualify for legal aid and believe you will need the law, you need to contact us now, before the end of March.
The new legislation will cut £350m from the £2.2bn legal aid scheme by removing entire areas of law from public funding, including nearly all family advice. At present, where there is a disparity in wealth between spouses involved in a divorce, state-funded legal advice can provide equality through access to a lawyer. But the legal aid bill will limit public funds for legal advice at the end of a relationship to only those cases which involve domestic abuse.
Sir Nicholas Wall, the most senior family judge in England and Wales predicted last year that there will be a “substantial increase” in the number of people representing themselves in court without proper advice because of legal aid changes.
At Ringrose Law we are offering fixed fees so that client’s will be fully aware how much matters will cost before instructions are given. For more information contact our family team.