Priti scary ‘We are coming after you,’ threatened Priti Patel last week at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. The ‘you’ being criminals, of course (as opposed to voters in marginal seats). The home secretary, who described herself as a ‘daughter of immigrants’ who needed ‘no lectures from the north London metropolitan liberal elite’, promised
Breaking point The latest criminal court statistics ‘sparked alarm among lawyers’ over ‘appalling’ crime detection rates and a growing backlog of cases, reported Jemma Slingo for the Law Society’s Gazette (here). According to the MoJ stats, the number of Crown court receipts and disposals ‘have fallen steadily over the past three years. While receipts rose
Justice for the people – ‘not just the privileged few’ A Corbyn government would deliver ‘hundreds of new social welfare lawyers’, as well as set up ‘dozens more law centres in areas that have most suffered from Conservative cuts’. The new law centres would be occupied by 200 lawyers specialising in areas such as benefits,
We need to love legal aid as we do the NHS Bar a tweet from the Ministry of Justice, the government had been silent over the 70th anniversary of the legal aid scheme in July, wrote Catherine Baksi in The Times. The lack of fanfare ‘contrasted sharply’ with celebrations last year to mark 70 years
Sometimes, you just want to live in a world that is a bit kinder Esme Madill, a former social worker and trainee solicitor at Islington Law Centre’s Migrant & Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (MiCLU), spoke to Fiona Bawdon for the Justice Gap’s All My Days column profiling the work done by Justice First Fellows funded
Chronically under-funded magistrates courts ‘Most of us will hope never to set foot in one, but thousands end up appearing in court each year. What is it like in Wales’ 14 magistrates courts – and how are they working?’ asked journalist Jenny Rees for BBC News Wales. She spent a lively day with defence solicitor
Courts idle as cases stack up Nearly half of all crown courts across England and Wales were left empty on Monday this week, the Guardian’s Owen Bowcott reported, despite lawyers claiming that the backlog of criminal cases had never been so long. ‘Law experts suggested MoJ cuts to the number of sitting days and recorders
Perfect storm A ‘perfect storm’ of factors was undermining the quality of criminal defence lawyers according to a new report by the charity Transform Justice, as reported by Holly Newing on the Justice Gap. In his foreword to the report (Criminal defence in an age of austerity: Zealous advocate or cog in a machine? here), the chief
The shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon MP pledged that a Labour government would restore ‘all of early legal help’ in its first week in government at a Justice Alliance event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of legal aid. Will Bordell reported on the event for the Justice Gap. Richard Burgon described Lord Willy Bach’s report on access
LALY winners in full The human rights lawyer who acted in the ‘right to die’ and assisted suicide cases brought by Debbie Purdy and Tony Nicklinson has won the outstanding achievement at this week’s Legal Aid of the Year awards. Paul Bowen QC, of Brick Court Chambers, thanked his ‘legal aid heroes’ who were his
