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“Having an understanding of legal aid deserts – where they exist and where the problems are – is so important to how we address the imbalance and ensure everyone has access to good legal advice in the future.” – Shárin Diegan, Family Law Barrister, Goldsmith Chambers.

Demand for family legal aid increased dramatically as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This stark rise left family solicitors and barristers with significantly larger workloads than they could handle, and placed severe pressure on family courts. 

Moreover, people who qualify for legal aid are struggling to access local providers, with the number of legal aid offices reducing drastically.

Dividing the nation

In order to discover the true state of family legal aid in England and Wales, UU����ֱ�� conducted independent research into family legal aid deserts. 

A desert was quantified by determining the specific legal need for a local authority, i.e. the number of ‘incidents’ in the area, compared to the ‘supply’, i.e. the number of legal providers in a local authority. Different population densities were made comparable by calculating legal need and supply per 10,000 persons, and areas within close proximity (-15km) were presumed to share both legal need and supply. 

Once figures were calculated based on the above, a final metric was assigned to each local authority by diving the supply by the need. Local authorities in the bottom 10% of their area were then given the title of ‘legal aid desert’. 

Key findings

The report highlighted some concerning shortfalls, with some areas showcasing high levels of demand with little to no local family legal aid supply to match it. 

• 1.09m people live in family legal aid deserts 
• The five best-served local authorities have 14.43 clinics per 1,000 incidents
• The family legal deserts in the bottom 10% had 0 clinics per 1,000 incidents

These figures bring some much-needed attention to an increasingly failing system. Perhaps even more worrying is that these numbers are expected to be even higher due to some reports going undetected and private proceedings taking place. 

Unlike other legal sectors such as housing and crime – which are either highly publicised or go on public record – family law incidents often slip under the radar and are not reported, which means they were not counted in this report. If private cases were also available and able to be added to the public case numbers used for the purpose of this study, it’s believed that the numbers would be much higher. 

The report outlined some interesting findings that go against the belief that it’s only central and northern areas of the UK that experience family legal aid deserts. Findings show that the South East have many areas in which local legal aid is virtually non-existent. 

The top 15 areas which exhibit the most family legal aid deserts were:

1) Wychavon

2) Derbyshire Dales

3) East Cambridgeshire

4) Ribble Valley

5) North Norfolk

6) Isles of Scilly

7) South Hams

8) West Devon

9) Rutland

10) Wealden

11) South Holland

12) Melton

13) Craven

14) Selby

15) Mid Sussex

Law Society of England and Wales President, Lubna Shuja, says:

“We know many people across the country, who are on low incomes, are facing serious legal problems – such as those about to lose their homes or those fleeing domestic violence. They are unable to get access to the advice they are legally entitled to."

But the picture for cases involving a family breakdown, such as divorce and child contact, is likely to be even worse than the maps suggest, says Shuja.

“There will be family legal aid providers shown in the maps who are only providing legal aid for cases related to children in care. This means for those fleeing domestic violence, who want to resolve relationship breakdown or child contact issues, access to legal advice is more sparce.”

Almost three quarters (71%) of respondents to a  survey said it was either difficult or very difficult to find a legal aid solicitor in their area. A third of respondents (33%) were having to travel between five and 15 miles to find a legal aid solicitor, and 23% had to travel more than 15 miles.

The number of providers has reduced even further, says Shuja. "Over the last decade, the number of family legal aid firms has more than halved. From July 2021 to July 2022 alone, another 83 family legal aid offices closed down, along with 32 housing legal aid offices and 68 crime legal aid offices."

When asked what can be done to improve access to legal aid for people living in these ill-equipped areas, family law barrister at Goldsmith Chambers, Shárin Diegan, says the answer might not be as simple as expanding support to local legal aid clinics or pro bono clinics.

“Those aren’t always accessible and there are restrictions on means testing, opening hours and generally if they’re still open or not with COVID or otherwise.”

“It may be a question of seeing if you can extend the collaboration to provide more access from London-based pro bono clinics who can outsource, and remote working has become a very welcome extension in that regard.”

Diegan made it clear that it isn’t up to barristers to take full responsibility for legal aid deserts.

“It’s not right that we as a profession are expected to bear the burden of a system that isn’t working.”

It’s clear that the current system for family legal aid is failing in the UK, and that more funding and clinics are required to support families and reduce the number of legal aid deserts across the country.

To find out more about the family legal aid crisis in the UK, take a look at the full UU����ֱ�� report.