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Legal aid – updating the book
When I was preparing the last edition of the book, in October 2012, the full details of how the legal aid scheme would work once the Legal Aid Agency had started its work, were not available. As a...
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New ways of funding legal services – responding to cuts in legal aid. The Low...
Government cuts to the legal aid budget are making people who want to deliver legal services to the poorest in society think hard about how this can be done into the future. I have already noted that...
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Delivering legal services to the public in an age of austerity
Like it or not, there is widespread acknowledgement that the funding of legal aid is not going to be restored to pre-Government cut levels. But knowing how to respond to this gloomy prediction is not...
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What has happened to Legal Aid?
The big changes to the legal aid scheme, designed to cut public expenditure on legal aid, were introduced in April 2013, following enactment of LASPO 2012. The first Annual Report of the Legal Aid...
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Mediation in Family Disputes
Mediation is the Government’s preferred option for resolving family disputes. The Government has recently announced that, from 3 November 2014, the first mediation meeting will be free to both parties,...
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Civil legal aid – review of the ‘mandatory gateway’
Legal practitioners have long argued that the only way to deliver proper legal advice and assistance is by face to face interviews with clients. With the development of new technologies, this view has...
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What is happening to Legal Aid? Reports from the Legal Aid Agency June 2015
Publication of the second Annual Report of the Legal Aid Agency might be thought to be an opportunity to find out in a bit more detail about what is happening to Legal Aid, following implementation of...
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Legal Aid – Exceptional Cases Funding – recent developments
Following enactment of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012,(LASPO) the scope of civil legal aid was significantly reduced. Civil legal services could only be funded under the...
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Who is doing legal aid? The statistical evidence
On 15 June 2015, I wrote a short note on the then recently published Annual Report of the Legal Aid Agency. I deplored the fact that, by comparison with its predecessor – the Legal Services Commission...
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Criminal legal aid changes – recent decisions
It is, to me, one of the curiosities of public life that U-turns are usually portrayed in the mass media as a sign of official/political incompetence. To me the idea that someone might change their...
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Creation of a Contingent Legal Aid Fund?
Ideas for new ways of funding cases for persons of moderate means have been floating around for a number of years. JUSTICE produced a report on the matter as long ago as 1978. The Bar Council returned...
View ArticleThe Right to Justice: Final Report of the Bach Commission
In September 2017, the Bach Commission (chaired by Lord Willy Bach) published its report on the Right to Justice. The Commission was established at the end of 2015 to find solutions that will...
View ArticleReviewing the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012
In 2008, the then Labour Government announced its support for the concept of post-legislative scrutiny of legislation. It stated that “the basis for a new process for post-legislative scrutiny should...
View ArticlePost-legislative scrutiny : LASPO 2012
The concept of the post-legislative scrutiny was introduced in 2008, following a report on the idea, published by the Law Commission in 2006. Now called ‘Post Implementation Review’, the Government has...
View ArticleExceptional case funding for legal aid
For an interesting research report go to this note published by the UK Administrative Justice Institute: Extending access to Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) through the work of university law clinics
View ArticlePost-implementation Review: Legal Aid – progress report
The Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) was a multi-faceted piece of legislation, dealing with a number of issues of great importance to the English Legal System. Part 1...
View ArticlePost Implementation Review of LASPO 2012 Part 1 (reform of legal aid)
February 2019 was a busy month for the Ministry of Justice.They published a large number of official documents relevant to the future of the English Legal System. First up was the long-awaited...
View ArticleReview of legal aid for inquests
Inquests offer an opportunity to investigate how a person has died. This process can be traumatic for the bereaved family. But the search to find out what happened is important in helping them to...
View ArticleLegal support – the way ahead? How much vision?
I have already noted the outcome of the Post-Implementation Review of changes to the Legal Aid scheme contained in Part 1 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012....
View ArticleRoyal Commission on the Criminal Justice system – details awaited
In the Queen’s Speech, delivered in December 2019, it was announced that the Government would establish a Royal Commission to review and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice...
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