"Why would I support legal aid? I'm never going to need it."
Apparently this is a common response to concerns about the Ministry of Justice's cuts to legal aid. At the One Bar, One Voice event yesterday one of the speakers gave a good example of its importance to people who think they're never likely to get into trouble.
Mrs X was a middle-class woman who had never been in trouble with the police before. She worked with voluntary groups and had family in the USA whom she periodically visited.
One day, picking up her children from school, she got involved in an argument with another parent. The police were called, and the other woman accused Mrs X of assaulting her. Mrs X denied this, but the police suggested that rather than get bogged down in defending a charge she simply accept a caution.
Fortunately, Mrs X insisted on speaking to a lawyer before agreeing to this. The lawyer spoke to her and looked at the evidence, and informed Mrs X that there was no evidence even to charge her. He also pointed out that had Mrs X accepted the caution, it would have affected her criminal record check status, so causing problems with her voluntary work, and would have made it difficult to get a visa waiver to visit her family in the USA. As it was, the lawyer was able to get the police to drop the matter.
Any of us could find ourselves in legal trouble. If you're not worried about legal aid cuts because you think only bad people need it, think again.
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/20077.html, where there are
comments.
Mrs X was a middle-class woman who had never been in trouble with the police before. She worked with voluntary groups and had family in the USA whom she periodically visited.
One day, picking up her children from school, she got involved in an argument with another parent. The police were called, and the other woman accused Mrs X of assaulting her. Mrs X denied this, but the police suggested that rather than get bogged down in defending a charge she simply accept a caution.
Fortunately, Mrs X insisted on speaking to a lawyer before agreeing to this. The lawyer spoke to her and looked at the evidence, and informed Mrs X that there was no evidence even to charge her. He also pointed out that had Mrs X accepted the caution, it would have affected her criminal record check status, so causing problems with her voluntary work, and would have made it difficult to get a visa waiver to visit her family in the USA. As it was, the lawyer was able to get the police to drop the matter.
Any of us could find ourselves in legal trouble. If you're not worried about legal aid cuts because you think only bad people need it, think again.
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/20077.html, where there are
comments.