Judicial review
BBC News, Independent, Times (£), Telegraph, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Guardian (live from 15:41), Mirror, Gazette, Legal Cheek, New Law Journal, Gazette Ireland, City A.M., South Wales Argus, Salisbury Journal, Bournemouth Echo, Shropshire Star, Irvine Times, Worcester News and more than 300 regional papers cover the Law Society’s High Court victory. The High Court ruled that our judicial review was successful, and the government acted unlawfully in failing to increase criminal legal aid rates.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: “We are delighted the High Court has recognised that then Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab’s decision was irrational.
“We are delighted the High Court has recognised that then Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab’s decision was irrational.
“We may have won the court battle but it’s the public who will lose out in custody suites and courtrooms across the country unless the Government takes immediate action to stop the exodus of duty solicitors from the profession.
“We are already seeing that there simply aren’t enough solicitors to represent suspects at police stations and magistrates’ courts day and night across the country.
“This situation will only get worse, with potentially dangerous consequences for society.”
Day of the Endangered Lawyer
Times (£) covers the plight of lawyers in Iran and the Law Society’s joint statement with the Coalition of Endangered Lawyers on the condition of Iranian lawyers. This comes as we marked Day of the Endangered Lawyer on 24 January.
Law Society vice president Richard Atkinson spoke of our “lawyers at risk programme”, which knows of “at least 66 lawyers that have been detained since the 2022 protests and 11 who have been sentenced.”
Family law
Karen Dovaston, chair of the Law Society’s Family Law Committee, speaks to BBC News and BBC One Breakfast about the consequences of underinvestment in family legal aid on those in the family justice system.
Karen said: "You're dealing with people who are [at] a difficult time in their life with limited money, limited assets, presenting yourself to be doing things for them that you're not."
Also worth a read:
- Insurance could help to ease the legal aid crisis – Times (£)
- SRA to investigate how to regulate CILEX students and paralegals – Legal Futures
- More than 30,000 asylum seekers are on bail and under the threat of deportation from the UK to Rwanda – Guardian
- Home Secretary says that Rwanda is “only one part” of the government’s response to rising migration – BBC
- Bar Council gives barristers new guidance on how to use AI in the legal profession – Legal Cheek
- New law to protect wildlife in Wales – BBC
- A prosecutor for the Post Office scandal claims to have never been told of Horizon IT problem – Guardian