The police must be laughing. Not even Michael Howard went this far. If current proposals on reforming legal aid spending are carried out it will become virtually impossible for anyone to take legal action against the police for intentional actions such as assault and battery, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. One of the only avenues for holding the police to account in the public domain will be closed.
In recent years the police have paid out millions in damages to people who have suffered at their hands. In many cases the money has not been the motivation behind the legal action but a determination to hold the police to account in public and to expose police violence and corruption. The lawyers who take on these cases do so from a commitment to ensuring the state cannot consistently abuse a number of its citizens and get away with it.
With a few memorable exceptions the state consistently fails in its responsibility to take action against police officers who abuse their power. Police officers are rarely prosecuted or disciplined. Within that framework civil actions are an important factor in policing the police.
People who take legal action against the police are mainly working class. They are only able to take this action because it is funded by legal aid. The police officers who have subjected the individual to mistreatment enjoy the backing of the extensive resources of the state in defending their unlawful actions.
If legal aid for these cases is abolished they simply will not come to court. The police will be able to abuse people, face no public scrutiny and the one independent check on police abuse of power will go. The Lord Chancellor and his Parliamentary Secretary of State, Geoff Hoon MP have said that they want to pursue the idea of a separate fund for public interest cases. But whether these cases would be included in the fund, how it would operate, and who would decide the public interest is not clear. What is clear is that an individual who has been subjected to abuse by the state must have access to some form of justice and be advised and represented by specialist lawyers with a commitment to police accountability .
Geoff Hoon MP said recently that the Government is aiming “to give civil and human rights a new reality”, and that “access to justice must be high on the agenda”. He believes that the current situation is a “story of ruined lives and the undermining of civil society, so that ideas of citizenship and individual freedom remain sentiments with no substance”.
Abolishing legal aid for civil actions against the police takes a massive leap in the opposite direction and would be tantamount to introducing a “Police Protection Bill”.