LegalVoice to close We launched the site in May 2012 to help the legal aid and legal not-for-profit sector face the challenges of a post LASPO world. David Gilmore and I set up LegalVoice with help from a number of people including Vicky Ling, Matt Howgate, Melanie O’Brien, Martha de la Rouche, and Natalia Rymaszewska.
Business as usual ‘People should come to court as usual unless they or a member of their party has or potentially has the coronavirus,’ HM Courts & Tribunals said today – as reported in the Law Society’s Gazette by Monidipa Fouzder. ‘We know how important it is for all court users – professional and public
Keep calm Crown courts should sit more often to deal with a backlog in cases, the head of the judiciary in England and Wales has urged – as reported Owen Bowcott in the Guardian. The lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, was giving his annual press office conference and called for a period of
Crumbs from the table The government reckons £50m could be on offer for criminal legal aid lawyers after unveiling the first tranche of proposals since commencing a review of fee schemes over a year ago, as reported by the Law Society’s Gazette. Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland QC said the proposals were an ‘important first step towards reviewing sustainability in
No safety net Almost four out of 10 legal aid firms do not use the LASPO ‘safety net’ and make exceptional case funding applications, according to a new study by the Public Law Project – reported on the Justice Gap (here). More then three-quarters believed the scheme was not effective. The PLP survey by Professor
Headlong rush It was only the day before yesterday when the then attorney general Geoffrey Cox QC suggested that while he had concerns about the ‘judicialisation’ of politics, there was no need for a ‘headlong rush into impetuous reform’. As Nicholas Reed-Langen wrote for the Justice Gap today: ‘Clearly Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings take
The Brenda agenda ’What stopped Lady Hale becoming president of the UK Supreme Court in 2012?’ asked Joshua Rozenberg in the Law Society’s Gazette. ‘If she had succeeded Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Hale would have had a good seven years in the top job instead of little more than two.’ In the legal journalist’s
Where’s the next generation going to come from? ’When I first ask students why they studied law or what they want to do when they graduate, many happily say they want to be criminal lawyers,’ began Dr James Thornton, a law lecturer at Nottingham Trent University for the Justice Gap (here). ‘Yet, come graduation, the
Barristers… and giant pandas The bar was ‘officially “on the brink”’, according to a Lexis Nexis report. ‘Rising costs, falling fees, cuts to legal aid and delays to payments are threatening the livelihoods of barristers across England and Wales – or so says a report by information provider Lexis Nexis, which balks at what it
It’s payback time Boris Johnson is to accelerate moves to limit the powers of campaign groups and individuals to challenge ministers in the courts, reported The Times. The prime minister claimed that judicial reviews were being used to ‘conduct politics by another means’. As the Times put it: ‘It was as a result of a judicial review that Mr Johnson’s prorogation
