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A Hull based criminal defence solicitor and Chair of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association (CLSA) has warned that the legal aid system is reaching a crisis point. Bill Waddington says "We have been suggesting to the Government for some years that we are reaching a crisis point. We think we are there now and we think we鈥檙e probably not far away from a total collapse of the legal aid system. The impact is that people who rely on legal aid to get advice and representation from solicitors would simply not be able to get it so you would have a huge raft of the population with no access to justice." He adds "The solution is for the Government to invest money into a system in which they have not invested any money since the early 1990鈥檚. That鈥檚 an incredible period of time during which we have seen legal aid rates fall by upwards of 50% if you take into account inflation. The net effect of that over that period of time is that fewer firms are offering legal aid as part of their service. So as a consequence there are fewer providers therefore people who need that advice can鈥檛 get it." The Hull East MP and Shadow Minister for Legal Aid, Karl Turner, says "There鈥檚 something called a justice gap which is happening which effectively means that people who are trying to get access to justice and trying to find lawyers to represent them, in what are very often complex legal proceedings, just can鈥檛 find a lawyer." Karl Turner MP would like to see an independent review of the system and has told 91热爆 Radio Humberside "The Government doesn鈥檛 need to start putting more money in because there are huge savings that could be made in the justice system that already exist. Keep the politics away from it, get an independent panel and let them decide the legal aid rates and if the Government agrees then they can implement the recommendations." A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said 鈥淲e have allocated millions in extra funding for the people most in need of legal advice and are carrying out a review of the means test. Support has also been put in place for legal aid providers including deferring debts, making it easier to claim fees and providing advice on financial assistance.鈥�