National Minimum Wage
Max Winthrop, chair of the Law Society’s Employment Law Committee, spoke with BBC Radio Essex (from 02:07:13 ) about the National Minimum Wage (NMW), as the government names six firms in Essex which have failed to pay their workers NMW.
Justice gap
Medium analyses whether artificial intelligence can help legal aid providers close the justice gap. The article cites the Law Society’s concerns about the rising number of legal aid deserts and the unmet demand for legal aid.
The Law Society said: “Millions are still unable to access justice when they need it, as charities and small firms struggle to keep legal aid afloat.”
Alexei Navalny interview
Independent and Yahoo UK report an interview from Alexei Navalny in which he accuses “corrupt officials” living in London for protecting the Putin regime.
A Law Society spokesperson said: “Law firms have chosen to end historic client relationships and have chosen not to represent new Russian clients even where no or limited sanctions apply.
“All firms continue to invest significant resources to ensure they and their clients comply with sanctions and anti-money-laundering measures that are in place.”
Civil legal aid research
Today’s Family Lawyer covers the Law Society’s research on civil legal aid, as we call on family practitioners to take part of our research and help inform our calls for civil legal aid reform.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: “In February, the Law Society published the results of its analysis of data from housing legal aid providers.
“It provided us with vital information as we continue to lobby the Ministry of Justice to make real and lasting changes to the civil legal aid market and ensure its future.
“Now we are embarking on the next stage of our research – family law providers – and we are calling on the profession to help us with this.
“We want family law practitioners to sign-up to take part in this research, so we can get a fuller picture of the issues facing the sector and continue to provide evidence as to why the UK government should invest in civil legal aid.”
Also worth a read:
- New Office for National Statistics figures show that divorces have reached their lowest level in five decades - Gazette
- A scheme that allows prisoners to be released early because of a lack of space has been extended for an “undefined period” - Guardian
- New legislation aims to prevent offenders from concealing their identities – Solicitors Journal
- Anti-leasehold bill may contain loopholes for developers - Guardian
- Former Post Office chairman to face questions by MPs today over delays to subpostmaster compensation pay, following the Horizon IT scandal – Standard
- Neurodiversity in the legal profession - Gazette
- Junior lawyers at a City law firm in line to earn as much as £2m each over three years – This is Money