Fewer legal aid lawyers operating in Black Country and parts of Staffordshire

Legal aid is given to those who cannot afford it to cover the costs of legal advice, mediation and representation with funding from the Government, which said it pumped £813 million into the sector last year.

Data from the Legal Aid Agency shows that as of February in Wolverhampton there are seven firms dealing with crime and 11 for family law. The city is among the areas without a legal aid provider for education law, and no providers offering welfare and benefits services.

In Walsall there 15 criminal law providers and seven for family; in Sandwell 14 for crime and six for family. In Dudley there are 11 providers in total.

Meanwhile in Stafford there are six providers, and two in South Staffordshire.

Figures show that in England and Wales there are 21 local areas with no legal aid providers whatsoever. Assistance with crime and family law are the most common types of legal aid requested, with 1,684 and 1,434 practices offering them respectively. The West Midlands overall has one provider for every 18,033 people.

Retired solicitor Ian Henery, of Walsall, ran branches in Willenhall and Birmingham before taking a decision to close down the business.

"In 2022 and after running a multi-award-winning four-office law firm for 22 years I made the decision to close down my practice," he said.

"All of my staff and all of my clients were transferred to other firms. It was noticeable that the young lawyers on my team chose not to work in legal aid because they felt there was no future in that area of work.

"As a business owner I felt that we sailed into a perfect storm of low legal aid rates, increase in the minimum wage, downturn in work caused by cuts to the number of police officers, court and police station closures, high rates of professional indemnity insurance and issues of succession planning because bright young lawyers do not want to do this area of work anymore."

The Law Society, a professional association for solicitors, is warning that key areas of law such as community care, immigration and housing are suffering from a lack of free legal advice and representation after a 2012 law cut the availability of funding for free support.

Cases dropped from more than 900,000 in 2009/10 to 130,000 in 2021/22 while the number of people going to court without representation trebled.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Everyone in England and Wales can access legal help and advice either face-to-face or through the Civil Legal Aid telephone service.”

“Last year, we invested £813 million to make sure civil legal aid gets to those who need it most and are reviewing the sector to ensure the system is sustainable well into the future.”