Ministry defends legal aid reforms as High Court judge highlights 'difficulties'

Ministers have described the legal aid system as one of the "most generous in the world" after concerns about the knock-on effects of cuts were raised by a High Court judge who specialises in cases involving families.

Mr Justice Holman - who has sat in the Family Division of the High Court for more than 20 years - says family court judges are "so often" being faced with litigants who are not represented by lawyers because of the "almost wholesale abolition of legal aid".

He is the second senior family court judge in recent months to raise the issue in the wake of Government legal aid reforms.

Mr Justice Mostyn - who also sits in the Family Division of the High Court - spoke last year of a "throng" of litigants in person entering courtrooms.

The judges are both based in London and have voiced concerns in rulings on cases they have overseen.

But a Ministry of Justice spokesman defended the reforms.

"Our legal aid system is still one of the most generous in the world," he said on Thursday.

"Last year we spent £1.6 billion on legal aid, almost a quarter of our departmental budget.

"The spending review settlement we have reached with the Treasury for the next five years leaves legal aid almost untouched."

He added: "It's long been the case that some people represent themselves in court but we are increasing the support available.

"This includes spending £2 million on advice for litigants in person, including improved online guidance, new court guides and explanatory videos."

Mr Justice Holman has outlined the difficulties one judge encountered after overseeing an appeal hearing on a divorce money dispute between an estranged Iranian couple.

The woman involved had challenged a ruling made by a deputy district judge following a family court hearing.

Mr Justice Holman concluded that the lower court judge's rulings on certain aspects of the case had been unreliable and should be reconsidered.

But he said the judge had found herself in difficult circumstances.

"She was faced, as so often occurs since the almost wholesale abolition of legal aid, with two unrepresented litigants in person," he said.

"The first language of neither of them is English ... the wife in particular has difficulties with that language."

He added: "In those difficult circumstances the deputy district judge clearly did her best."

Mr Justice Mostyn had also overseen an appeal against orders made by a deputy district judge in a family court.

He said a man had complained about a ruling relating to child maintenance.

And he also ruled that the case should be reconsidered.

But Mr Justice Mostyn said both the man and his former partner had been "self-represented" at the hearing in the lower court.

"This demonstrates yet again the difficulty that the court is often placed in these days by the throng of litigants in person that the recent legal aid reforms have caused to enter the courtrooms," he said.

"It is my opinion that in two respects, because of the lack of legal representation, the court has in this case reached legally erroneous conclusions."