ABSTRACT
Legal aid (now called public funding) was introduced after the Second World War to enable people who could not otherwise afford the services of lawyers to be provided with those services by the State. The system and costs grew enormously over the decades. The system underwent various restrictions and cutbacks during the late 1990s and was replaced by other systems like the Community Legal Service (2000) and the Criminal Defence Service (2001). The term ‘legal aid’ is still used as a descriptive, non-technical term to refer to State-funded services. It is run by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) and assists over two million people each year. The annual legal aid budget for 2012-13 was £2 billion.
