Star date: 21st July 2015

CAMP DEFENDANTS DENIED LEGAL AID TO FIGHT MANCHESTER COUNCIL

"The situation is extremely grave for access to justice..." RAPAR

This morning, an application for legal aid by representatives of the Manchester Homeless Camp fighting eviction at the Civil Justice Centre was denied minutes before the case was due to be heard.

The judge adjourned the case until 30th July while a review of the legal aid denial is requested but it is unlikely that that it will have concluded by then. "The defendants are probably going to have to represent themselves at court" explained Ben Taylor the solicitor acting for the Camp "It is extremely unsatisfactory and disappointing."

Full details here...

This morning at the Civil Justice Centre in Manchester, representatives of the Homeless Camps were expected to defend Manchester City Council's legal action to evict them from the whole of the city centre... a move labelled a "draconian" attempt to criminalise the homeless (see previous Salford Star article – click here).

Minutes before the case was due to be heard, however, solicitors acting for the Camp heard that legal aid had been denied – and the judge subsequently adjourned the case until 30th July so the decision could be challenged.

"I'm very, very saddened by the Legal Aid Agency's decision to refuse my clients legal aid" said solicitor Ben Taylor after the hearing "We are going to submit a review of their decision, which I think is a wrong one, in order to try and persuade the LAA that they should be giving my clients legal aid."

On 1st April 2013 the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishing of Offenders Act (LASPO) came into force, denying whole swathes of people legal aid. Instead, defendants could apply for Exceptional Case Funding and it was this that was denied the Camp at 10:49am, as the case was due to be heard.

"I am dissatisfied with the decision and I'm going to request a review but it is unlikely that that it will have concluded by July 30th; as a consequence of which the defendants are probably going to have to represent themselves at court" Ben Taylor explained "It is extremely unsatisfactory and disappointing but legal aid lawyers predicted this would happen; that the courts would be inundated with what we call `litigants in person', those people who don't have legal representation. It's going to clog up the courts and slow down the legal process.

"With the greatest respect to my clients, I don't think they will be able to be fully knowledgeable in the area of law to properly represent themselves" he added.

Rhetta Moran, of the human rights organisation RAPAR, said the denial of legal aid will have `grave' repercussions for anyone falling out of the scope of the LASPO Act...

"At this moment in time legal aid is being denied to representatives of the most intensely vulnerable members of the city's population" she said "The situation is extremely grave for access to justice for anyone and on every front now.

"The representatives of Manchester City Council stated explicitly today that it was in court to stop the Homeless Camp from moving around the city" she added "Why isn't the City Council stopping the homelessness?"

And George Watt, a former homeless man who was in court this morning, insisted that the whole action by Manchester Council against the Homeless Camps and their Manchester and Salford residents was vindictive and a waste of public money...

"It's ridiculous" he said "They just want them out of sight of the public and that's the bottom line. They want them to go back to the rat infested hell holes. The Council has wasted thousands of pounds on evictions from Albert Square and St Peter's Square, and on police and legal costs.

"It's a complete and utter waste of tax payers' money" he added "Someone up high in Manchester Council is totally incompetent, just signing cheques willy nilly to try and chase these people back underground."