if they really want to save money then cut the pay of barristers lawyers and judges - that should do the trick and be very popular, and should leave money for those who cannot afford 'justice'.

Not judges, of course.

Haven't you heard of fixed fees? They mean solicitors can now only afford to take on very simple civil cases on legal aid. The legal problems the poorest and most multi-shafted people have over housing, immigration, benefits, employment etc.are usually the most complex. As a result, many conscientious, hard-fighting, solicitors are simply dropping out because they know they can't do a proper job for the fixed fee. That's not because they're greedy, it's because they'd simply go bust otherwise. They were getting paid bugger all for legal aid work even under the old system. That's why it's now well nigh impossible to get a competent legal aid solicitor in these fields in most areas.

In urban areas where many poor people live, a handful of big legal aid "factories" have set up doing "volume casework" to exploit the new system by alleged "economies of scale". That means crap work and don't give a toss, often done by inexperienced people not sufficiently specialised in their fields, who're pissed off and looking for another job.

The cuts in CLS staff are a consequence of all this crap and are unlikely to make it any worse than it is already. Not so many people needed to dish out a pittance of a fixed fee, regardless of how much work is really needed to solve problems and get good results.

Stroppyoldgit has it about right. Not that any lawyers are really politically motivated, but the ones who want to do a good job for people who need access to the law, have to work fast and do cases almost like a production line in order to keep the firm going on legal aid payments. It's not just to do with high salaries, you have to pay all the business overheads out of the pittance the LSC pays out. The government has spent the past ten years whittling away at the legal aid budget, this is purely an attack on the working class, to prevent them getting access to justice. The other problem is, the LSC reviews every firm's legal aid contract every year, so effectively you can only be sure of being employed for a year at a time. Older people (like me) who've had many years of this insecurity, even though they love the work and have the experience to do it well, start looking for something else. As you get further on in your working life, you feel the need more stability. When you change jobs, your accumulated experience gets lost to the people who most need it.