Mr Clarke defended the proposals, telling the House of Commons:
"Few of these are easy choices, but they are often disputes about financial issues, rather than life and liberty - it's sensible to give them a lower relative priority," he said.
"Across some of these areas, reformed no win, no fee arrangements will be available.
"But our broader ambition is that people will be encouraged to use alternative, less adversarial means of resolving their problems.
"For private family law cases, the Government is increasing spending on mediation and legal advice in support of mediation by two thirds or £10 million, to £25 million each year. Mediation has a high rate of success in family cases."
He spoke of concern across the House about the future of not-for profit advice centres.
"I agree that they do very important work in providing quality, worthwhile advice of the kind required by very many people who should not need adversarial lawyers," he said.
"However, Legal Aid only represents one of several income streams for many organisations, with 85 per cent of Citizens Advice Bureaux funding coming from other sources, and half of all Bureaux getting no legal aid funding at all."
The Coalition will provide extra funding of £20 million this financial year to improve the effectiveness of advice services, he said.
Under the Bill, defendants who decline legal aid and pay privately in the higher criminal courts will no longer be able to recover the costs of an expensive private lawyer if acquitted.
Firms will be expected to insure against criminal prosecutions and will no longer be able to recover costs.
Mr Clarke also said he had never proposed replacing short-term prison sentences with community sentences for female offenders.
"However if we can increase confidence that they will be meaningfully punitive I think they could make the justice system more sensible in some situations," he said.
He concluded: "If we get this right, the prize is a justice system that properly contributes to a safer, fairer society - a justice system that is user-friendly, that works, that doesn't deny access to justice, and has less daunting waste with costs under control.
"This is a major reforming Bill that I would have liked to introduce 20 years ago if I had stayed long enough at the Home Office."
Article Source KBG Test Blog (http://rc.kbg.me)
