Court recovery plan
A Times (£) opinion piece decries the state of courts in England and Wales, noting our court survey findings that courts have mould and asbestos, sewage seeping into cells and furniture held together by gaffa tape, and that more than 30% of lawyers reported not feeling physically safe while attending court.
Read more about our findings and recommendations
Overwhelming public support for legal aid
The Gazette, Morning Star and Law360 (£) cover our civil legal aid poll. According to the poll of 2,000 members of the public, 84% Conservative, 95% Labour and 97% Liberal Democrat voters agreed that legal aid is a good thing.
Law Society President Lubna Shuja, who will give evidence on legal aid to the House of Commons justice select committee today, said the government was “swimming against the tide of its own voters”.
Despite overwhelming public support, “chronic underfunding means more and more people are struggling to get civil legal aid and are resorting to representing themselves at often critical points in their lives”, she said.
“Over the past decade the number of legal aid firms has nearly halved, and recent Law Society research shows this number could drop by a further third, by 2025.
“This means less help for families facing eviction or fighting for welfare benefits, and for vulnerable people struggling to get access to the care they are entitled to.”
Criminal defence funding pre-action protocol
LexisNexis (£) reports our pre-action protocol letter that sets out our arguments for why the Lord Chancellor’s decision not to increase criminal legal aid rates for defence solicitors by the bare minimum recommended by an independent review is unlawful.
Law Society president Lubna Shuja said: “We argue the lord chancellor’s decision not to remunerate solicitors by the bare minimum 15%, which the independent review said was needed immediately over a year ago to prevent the collapse of the criminal defence sector, is unlawful, as is the decision not to take action to address the risk of local market failure.
“We are seeking a commitment by the government to withdraw both decisions and reconsider them within a mutually agreed timetable. If not, we will issue a judicial review seeking an order to quash them.”
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