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University of London
Essay:
Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of conditional fee arrangements for legal aid.
3. Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of conditional fee arrangements for legal aid.
Conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) are the most important ways of access to justice in legal aid system. The legal aid also called public funding was introduced after World War II to enable people who could not have access to justice such as affording the services of lawyers, solicitors or legal representative to be provided with those services by the State. One of the essential ways of access to justice to people is via CFA. The latter are mostly increasing in terms of funding and it has become popular in England and Wales. The importance of CFAs are seen under S 58 of Court and Legal Services Act (CLSA)1990 where it provides the Lord Chancellor to introduce CFA system in personal injury, insolvency and human rights cases but it cannot apply for criminal cases, family cases and those involving children under S 58(10) of CLSA 1990. For family, housing and social welfare cases are funded by the Community Legal Service. If claimants fall outside the Community Legal Services fund and Criminal Defence Services, claimants will be automatically fall under the CFA. However, there are some favorable benefits and also some detriments of the conditional fee agreements.
CFA is an agreement between solicitors that is drawn up when the client wishes to make a claim. The CFA was first introduced in 1989 by Lord Chancellor on an entire Green Paper which sought opinion on the funding of litigation. The litigation is funded by the claimant only. Furthermore, if the claimant wins his/her case, the lawyer fees
Bibliography: * The English Legal System (Slapper & Kelly- Eighth Edition) * The Politics of the Common Law (Adam Gearey, Wayne Morrison & Robert Jago) * Lord Chancellor’s Department Consultation, Access to Justice with Conditional Fees March 1998. * Articles on NO WIN NO FEE arrangements, http://www.articlesbase.com/law-articles/no-win-no-fee-agreements-how-do-they-work-1889987.html * The English Legal System – 3rd Edition by Jacqueline Martin AS Law – Elliot and QuinnShort-listed essays – James Faulkner (AS Law http://www.peterjepson.com/law/HughesLAS-4.htm * http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/docs/legal-aid-refocusing-final-response-web.pdf