As a solicitor, who set up a firm with two other family lawyers in 2005 primarily to deal with family legal aid cases for the mixed housing area of Shirley in Southampton where we practice, I was very concerned when I heard of the proposed new reforms for family legal aid work, writes Wendy Hewstone.
General introduction to the series of articles As from the 1st of February 2012, when new contracts started with Family and Family with Housing practitioners, the Legal Services Commission’s mainstream face-to-face civil and crime providers have been operating under the same standard terms. It is unlikely that many people have had the time and/or motivation
The late, great Gore Vidal is famous for saying (amongst other things) ‘Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.’ Human beings have a fascination for statistics, both real and fictional, which is why, I suppose, witticisms such as Vidal’s so
I’ve just returned from a few reinvigorating days at the 500 strong National Community Legal Centres Conference in Adelaide, Australia, where I was a keynote speaker, writes Julie Bishop. It was inspiring to see how much can be achieved in a stable policy and funding environment like Australia where energy and resources are not wasted
In the last few years the firm that I work for (Redmans Solicitors) has engaged in a radical restructuring of the way it works and markets itself. In this series of posts I’ll write about our experience (both good and bad) and give some pointers on what I think small to medium-sized firms should be
The SQM Delivery Partnership – the Legal Services Commission’s national auditing body set up to conduct Specialist Quality Mark (SQM) audits in England and Wales – has reported that 888 legal providers have completed SQM audits in the first 7 months of 2012, writes Stuart Lee. These providers are likely to be conducting public-funded work
Being Jewish is important to me, so you will understand that when I say that I was an atheist up until July 26 this year, I am talking about the Olympics, writes Rebecca Hilsenrath. I was never exactly negative about London 2012 – I remember the announcement in 2005 and being pleased that we had
The Legal Services Commission’s contract managers have been conducting informal assessments of files and I have been receiving a number of queries from not-for-profit (NfP) agencies because cases advising on entitlement to benefits appear to be disallowed on a fairly regular basis, writes Vicky Ling. It is clear that the goalposts have moved since the
This is the first of a short series or articles on data protection and data security, writes Matt Howgate. Well, after a slow start, the Information Commissioner seems to have found his teeth. The Information Commissioner’s Office has now handed out some pretty hefty fines to companies breaching the Data Protection Act (‘DPA’) through losing
It seems such a good idea to run a fundraising event. Nothing could possibly go wrong could it? Let me just raise a few issues. Risks Making a loss There is a huge risk that it will make a loss. It is very easy to make a loss on a fundraising event. Although there are
