Running the finest legal system in the world is expensive. The challenge is to maintain the highest standards of justice without breaking the bank. There have to be compromises. Legal aid should be a subsidy for many rather than a freebee for few. The budget should be increased by reducing inefficiencies.

Life in the courts of England and Wales is characterised by delays. The modern world has new types of time-consuming evidence including computer, phone and bank records. Sometimes this kind of evidence takes days to adduce and is almost inconsequential to the verdict. New methods of presenting this type of evidence should be found. These are just some of many ways that the cost of modern justice could be controlled.

There might be 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK but there aren't uniformly DVD players in the courts to play the footage. Technology holds the key to transforming legal services.

A huge percentage of the legal aid budget is spent on a very few "mega-trials". The most expensive 1% of cases by volume in the Crown Court account for 28% of the whole criminal legal aid budget, or 50% of all Crown Court legal aid expenditure.

This government’s policies have been brutal and short sighted. Reform and competition are desperately needed, but radical reform needs to be done very carefully. The Legal Services Act will open the market up for the first time to "Alternative Business Structures". Who these will be is as of yet unclear?

The Guardian
Cheap at twice the price. Legal aid receives so little support from the government that access to justice is being increasingly denied to the most vulnerable in society

The Times
Now, even the pro bono units can't afford to stay open. The shake-up in legal aid is having a devastating effect on law centres, hitting some of those most deserving of legal help

The Legal Week
Opposition to best value tendering for legal aid

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