Community Legal Service Funding

In R v The Legal Services Commission and the Lord Chancellor ex parte Jarrett the court, while acknowledging the general compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights of the public funding regime introduced by the Access to Justice Act 1999 in excluding various classes of case, such as business matters, encouraged the Lord Chancellor to clarify his guidance on the specified circumstances in which he can authorise the LSC to fund cases under s6(8)(b) of the Act. In response to this invitation, the Lord Chancellor, on 1 November, added to the criteria for obtaining exce funding cases where, without representation, it would be practically impossible for the applicant to proceed or there would be obvious unfairness. This is in addition to the existing criteria of raising matters of significant wider public interest or being of overwhelming importance to the applicant. The test for representation at an inquest is whether the family of the deceased need representation in order to help the coroner carry out the task of determining the cause of death. The Lord Chancellor has authorised the LSC to grant funding without having to seek his authority in each individual case in respect of deaths occurring in police or prison custody, or during the course of police arrest, search, pursuit or shooting.