Express Solicitors, Access to justice post LASPO 2012

June 2025 · Express Solicitors · Professional panel

At Express Solicitors’ 2025 Pride programme, Olivia Campbell-Cavendish joined a panel of legal, health and inclusion specialists. Her contribution examined access to justice, conditional fee agreements and the barriers that prevent meritorious claims from reaching a court. In Airey v Ireland, the European Court of Human Rights established that access to a court must be effective in practice; legal assistance may be required where a person cannot realistically present a case without it. That principle remains current. By 2024, civil legal-aid case volumes in England and Wales had fallen by approximately 57% from their pre-LASPO level. Conditional fee agreements provide an important route to representation, but cannot replace a functioning system of publicly funded legal advice.