LawWorks is developing the way it works with solicitors to provide pro bono services. The changing funding climate in the legal advice sector caused by the implementation of Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, 2012 (LASPO), including associated welfare reforms, has meant that demand for legal advice in social welfare law has not only increased in volume but transformed in nature, such that some clients need much more than one-off assistance.
Following the implementation of LASPO in April 2013, legal help and representation are no longer within scope of legal aid in welfare benefits, some aspects of housing , family (except domestic violence matters), employment, immigration and debt. These are the core areas of social welfare law where, unfortunately, access to justice is eroding.
Accordingly, Secondary specialisation has emerged in response to the desire to find ways to extend pro bono to clients who are unable to access legal assistance, mainly due to the implementation of LASPO. Through its secondary specialisation programme, LawWorks has partnered with member firms to develop a service that assists clients either to resolve their legal problems fully or, where appropriate, facilitates access to funded support, such as legal aid.
LawWorks employs two part-time in-house social welfare solicitors who organise the training and supervision of volunteer solicitors to enable them to take on casework from start to completion of the matter, including representation and advocacy at relevant tribunals.
The first project was the ‘Welfare Benefits First-Tier Tribunal Support and Advocacy Scheme’. LawWorks is partnering with Islington Law Centre, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), volunteer solicitors from Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) LLP, Clyde & Co and Sidley Austin LLP, to provide specialist assistance and advocacy at First-Tier Social Security Tribunals on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) appeals.
More than 100 volunteer lawyers from these firms have been trained by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), the leading training provider in social welfare law.
So far, 60 Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) appeals have been made under the scheme with an impressive 90 percent success rate. In managing these cases, the lawyers are supported and actively supervised by an experienced in-house social welfare solicitor at LawWorks. LawWorks also liaises with organisations such as Islington Law Centre and Advising London at the referral stage to ensure that only eligible and appropriate cases are taken on under the scheme.
LawWorks collates relevant appeal papers, liaises with clients and allocates cases to volunteer lawyers. The lawyers often work in pairs to incorporate peer support, while at the same time ensuring that clients receive seamless high quality casework support and representation.
Following discussion with a number of charities and legal advice providers in Bristol, we identified a need for additional support in the city in relation to housing allocations which are out of scope for legal aid. As a result, through a second project, we now work with the charity Together for Short Lives to support clients challenging local authority decisions in relation to housing allocations and community care services.
LawWorks is grateful to LexisNexis which has developed a bespoke case management system, known as Visualfiles. Volunteer lawyers can access the system remotely from their offices.
The Secondary specialisation programme has recently been evaluated and we will be sharing our learning and experience with members and other, providing or looking to provide, more in depth pro bono case work and representation.