The Ministry of Justice took the LAA Online Portal offline after the full extent of a recent cyber attack on the agency’s digital services became apparent. The shutdown, initially seen as precautionary, is now expected to last for weeks while a replacement system is developed.
The disruption has left legal aid firms unable to process new applications for public funding. While the LAA has said that representation orders will be backdated once the portal is operational, solicitors warn that they face considerable uncertainty, particularly where clients may later fail financial eligibility or "interests of justice" tests.
As a result, some firms are declining to act in borderline cases, unwilling to risk taking on work that may not ultimately be funded. One solicitor told the Gazette that “there is no guarantee a client would pass the interests of justice or financial eligibility tests”, leaving firms exposed to the possibility of working for free.
The situation is particularly acute for legal aid providers, many of which already operate on extremely tight margins. The Joint V Law Societies — representing Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester — have warned that the prolonged disruption threatens the financial stability of firms delivering essential access to justice.
In a strongly worded statement, the Joint V said:
“For firms already working on the narrowest of margins, this interruption in work, and possibly in income, places them at real risk of financial instability. These are firms whose commitment to access to justice sustains entire communities – their survival cannot be taken for granted.”
Joint V Law Societies Demand Urgent Action and Transparency
The Joint V has written to the LAA setting out five key demands, calling for:
Despite the ongoing shutdown, the LAA has confirmed that legal aid contributions from applicants will continue as normal, leaving firms bearing the brunt of the operational risk.
Widening Crisis Raises Concerns Over Sustainability of Legal Aid Sector
The incident has further exposed the fragile state of the legal aid system, where providers have long warned that chronically low fees, rising costs, and mounting administrative burdens have left many firms on the brink. The cyber attack has compounded these pressures by cutting off critical cash flow for firms dependent on the LAA portal to process and bill for legal aid work.
Without urgent intervention, legal aid providers fear that more firms may be forced to withdraw from publicly funded work entirely, jeopardising access to legal representation for some of the country’s most vulnerable clients.
As the LAA works to recover its systems and rebuild confidence, the incident has triggered wider questions about the resilience of legal aid infrastructure, the support offered to front-line firms, and the Ministry of Justice’s broader commitment to the sustainability of publicly funded legal services.
