Legal aid sticks

It had to happen.

The Legal Services Commission may have successfully rebranded itself and cast off the bad old days of the Legal Aid Board, but ditching the term 'legal aid' itself has proved far trickier.

Since its introduction in April 2000, while government and the commission spoke consistently of legal help and representation, the rest of us found it far easier to continue talking about legal aid.

And now, 18 months on, the commission has admitted defeat.

The latest newsletter of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group reports that at a meeting, the commission said that 'legal aid' is once again official terminology for its funding.

Speculation that the resistance was put up by the LAPG to avoid changing its name has been refuted.