All Legal aid and access to justice articles – Page 108
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Opinion
Lib Dems fighting legal aid cuts
I was very disappointed to read about Ian Craine’s experience of trying to discuss proposed changes to legal aid with Liberal Democrat MPs. May I assure him that the Liberal Democrat Lawyers Association is lobbying hard over these proposals to try and persuade our MPs that they are misguided. So ...
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News
City lawyers join fight against legal aid cuts – finally
City law firms have joined the attack on the government’s legal aid cuts, warning that they ‘pose a potentially irreversible risk to the standards and reputation of English justice’. In a letter to the Law Society, the chairman of the City of London Law Society Alasdair Douglas criticised the ‘grossly ...
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News
Anger as MoJ accused of deleting legal aid consultation responses
The Ministry of Justice has claimed that an ‘email glitch’ is to blame for many barristers and solicitors receiving a message telling them that their response to the Transforming Legal Aid consultation has been ‘deleted unread’. The Gazette, together with the Law Society, Bar Council and other practitioner groups, have ...
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Opinion
PCT: choice words
I cannot let Alexander McCulloch’s letter pass without comment. His comparison of the old duty solicitor scheme with Grayling’s price-competitive tendering is invidious. I was a duty solicitor for many years; the scheme was never about restriction of choice. Both at the police station and at the magistrates’ court the ...
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News
Bar chief calls for royal commission
More than two decades after the Runciman Commission was set up following high-profile miscarriages of justice, the chairman of the Bar Council has called for a royal commission to conduct a root-and-branch review of the criminal justice system. Maura McGowan suggested that the system be reviewed holistically, as the government ...
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News
Clegg fuels rumours of cabinet split over legal aid
Signs of a cabinet split over the government’s legal aid proposals have emerged after the deputy prime minister voiced concern over the removal of client choice and the attorney general appeared to endorse barristers’ concerns that the changes would ‘damage the justice system’. The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday that ...
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News
Juniors ‘on £14 a day’ after legal aid cuts, MPs hear
Junior barristers will be paid as little as £14 a day – well below the minimum wage – under the government’s proposed criminal legal aid cuts, the House of Commons justice committee heard today.
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News
Bar regulator condemns legal aid plans
The Ministry of Justice’s ‘muddled’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’ legal aid reforms have been savaged by the bar’s representative and regulatory bodies.
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News
Bar bodies condemn legal aid plans
The Ministry of Justice’s ‘muddled’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’ legal aid reforms have been savaged by the bar’s representative and regulatory bodies.
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News
Residence test proposal ‘unlawful and unworkable’
Lawyers have warned that the proposed introduction of a residence test for civil legal aid is potentially ‘unlawful, discriminatory and unworkable’
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News
Government denies plan for ‘wholesale privatisation’ of courts
The Ministry of Justice has denied it has plans for the ‘wholesale privatisation’ of the courts service – despite extra pressure from the Treasury to reduce spending..
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FeatureLaw centres: living on the edge
Last week’s London Legal Walk, coming weeks after swingeing legal aid cuts were introduced, could be read as a show of strength by the whole legal community.
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Opinion
Wounded legal aid firms fight back
We are being invited to enter a brave new world of price competition
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News
JR legal aid cuts ‘immunise government from challenge’ - silks
Ninety QCs have warned that government plans to cut legal aid for judicial review will ‘immunise’ the state from legal challenge.
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News
Legal aid cuts ‘will hammer middle England’
Four out of five adults in England and Wales would be unable to pay for a lawyer
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News
Fixed fees in legal aid ruled unlawful – in New Zealand
The Court of Appeal in New Zealand has ruled that a planned legal aid shakeup to introduce fixed fees is unlawful.
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News
Overwhelming public backing for legal aid: poll
Government claims that the legal aid system has lost credibility with the public are rebutted by a survey published today showing that seven out of 10 adults fear that criminal legal aid cuts could lead to innocent people being convicted of crimes they did not commit.
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News
Whose justice system is Europe’s best?
There are legions of fat-cat legal aid lawyers living off the cream of the land in Britain, or so certain newspapers have been telling us for years. And those papers may be right: as recently as 2010 the UK genuinely did pay out more in legal aid than any other ...
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News
SRA warning to legal aid lawyers
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has urged firms to take care with vulnerable clients and uphold standards even if legal aid cuts are in force.
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News
Family legal aid fees will leave solicitors worse off
The proposed fixed fees for family legal aid work will leave solicitors worse off, according to a Law Society survey published today.