The number of lawyers willing to take on cases for people on minimum incomes is shrinking because of government cuts, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.

The paper says that the cost of pursuing complicated cases in particular is being hit by funding cuts and changes to the legal aid system.
‘As a lawyer, I think I should take on these sort of cases, but if I am going to go bankrupt by doing so, then I will quit,’ Amsterdam lawyer Gilles Beydals tells the paper.
Legal aid lawyers get paid roughly €100 an hour, the paper says, well below normal fees. This year, the government is cutting €10m from the legal aid budget. Some €50m is being cut next year.
‘It is becoming increasingly common that people with complicated cases cannot find a lawyer,’ Hein Vogel, chairman of the legal aid lawyers association said.