The Legal System: Knowledge, Scholarship and Policy

Abstract

The three pillars of the Lord Chancellor's reforms of the provision of legal services are now in place. The Legal Aid Act 1988 removed the administration of legal aid from The Law Society and passed it to the Legal Aid Board, which is charged with examining new and better ways of delivering legal services to those unable to fund legal services from their own resources. It is now abundantly clear that the expense of a system bolted on to the private model of delivering legal services is too great for a Government obsessed with public expenditure. The Children Act 1989 modernizes the operation of the legal system's decisionmaking machinery in relation to the welfare of children. Finally, the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 implements reforms recommended by the Civil Justice Review' and redraws the map of legal service provision by making competence coupled with systems of accountability rather than professional title the qualification for delivery of legal services. There is a statutory objective in the Act2 requiring policy-makers to make provision for new or better ways of providing legal services and a wider choice of persons providing them, while maintaining the proper and efficient administration of justice.3 The legal profession has not embraced this change with enthusiasm;4 there are complaints of the dismantling of the legal aid scheme.5 It is therefore timely to reflect on the current state of legal services in England and Wales as evidenced in recently published books and pamphlets. To what extent have providers of legal services and policy-makers grasped the challenges laid down in the massive Florence access to justice study6 to ensure that the legal system is equally accessible to all, that the access provided