ABSTRACT
A Government scheme of legal aid and advice was introduced after the Second World War for those on low incomes who would not otherwise have been able to afford to seek legal help. However by the 1980s the State funded scheme had run into difficulties, particularly because of the rising costs of legal services-90% of the legal aid budget was being spent on lawyers’ fees and the total costs exceeded what the State could afford to pay. To address these problems, the Access to Justice Act 1999 introduced a new approach to the provision of legal services. The old legal aid system has been replaced by two new schemes:
