Legal aid cuts will compound injustice

Afua Hirsch is right to highlight the poor quality of public decision-making ( Comment , 14 October). As legal aid lawyers specialising in community care, mental health and special needs education law, we see the results of this every day: disabled adults and children denied assessment of their needs or the services they are entitled to; those suffering from a mental illness inappropriately detained in hospitals through lack of community placements; and disabled children missing years of school while appropriate school placements are refused. The cuts will add to the difficulties experienced by those who need services as public bodies further restrict provision. And when those cuts eliminate experienced legal aid lawyers, who will then have the knowledge, experience and stamina to advise, assist and represent in court those struggling against the public sector bureaucracy? If the answer is nobody (or a well-meaning amateur) then what chance for justice? Julie Burton, Mark Sadler and Rebecca Humphreys Julie Burton Law, Bangor • I wholeheartedly applaud Afua Hirsch's eloquent defence of legal aid. But her description of Niki Goss's income as "less than the average primary school teacher" is unfortunate. Are teachers of young children less essential to society than lawyers, even legal aid lawyers? If more kudos and wealth were associated with educating children, perhaps we would have less need for legal aid lawyers. Lesley Wilton Alhaurin el Grande, Spain • While there is no legal aid for hearings in employment tribunals ( Editorial , 18 October), it still remains for representation in appeals. In addition, there remains legal help to prepare and run tribunal claims, which is crucial in discrimination cases. Without it the rights in the new Equality Act are virtually worthless. John Wiggins London