Research and Policy in London Project

Policy Development in London Project was funded by City Parochial Foundation for two years ending at the end of September 2008.

The Law Centres Federation’s (LCF) London Research and Policy Officer was funded by City Parochial Foundation.  The aim of the London Research and Policy Project was to ensure that both the London Unit of the LCF and Law Centres had an input into central and local government policy which affects the distribution of legal advice services in London. Essentially, the London Research and Policy Project provided support in relation to awareness raising on access to justice, human rights and equality issues.  The London Unit worked closely with the Policy Manager, Lynn Evans at the LCF in order to link in both London and Regional Law Centres.

The aim of Research and Policy was to conduct research with member organisations and other NfP’s, statutory and non-statutory agencies, in order to promote and identify access to justice and equality rights issues.  In addition to this, The London Unit Research and Policy Project also maintained links and working relationships with policy units of other relevant organisations in London, e.g. Access to Justice Alliance, Advice Services Alliance, London Advice Forum, Legal Services Commission (London Regional Office) and the Mayor’s Office for London.  The LCF London Research and Policy Project also represented LCF and its members at meetings of external organisations and London Government working groups. 

Case Length Research

The Research and Policy Project conducted research into London Law Centres case lengths for the purposes of identifying and documenting such cases in an effort to provide an overview as to why London cases take a relatively longer period of time to complete. For example, where cases are superficially similar but may, in fact be very different according to the circumstances of the service users, legal complexity of the case or external factors such as the opponents to the case.

The case length research project is currently underway and is taking the form of qualitative interviews with advisers in London Law Centres in relation to particular cases of relevance.  It is anticipated that the project will be reported and published by the LCF by the end of 2008.

It is anticipated that the study will address Para 6.7 of the LSC’s recommendation that “…from our analysis of the available data we would accept that the cost of running a legal aid firm in London is higher than in many parts of the country but these do not appear to justify or explain the much higher average prices in London, but we believe that the cost of delivering services can often be higher in rural areas.”

The purpose of the study is to put forward grass roots reasons as to why London should be considered as a special case, i.e. cost of living is higher in London, London has a greater demand on services, diversity is greater, there is a greater multitude of social problems, insufficient supply of services for users etc.  By highlighting these issues, the study hopes to put forward the case that London is unique and this should be reflected upon in the fees systems. For example, it has been suggested that a London regional fee should be introduced.

Future project proposals:

  • Improving communication channels with Law Centres
  • Engaging with Law Centres in order to identify areas of legal and policy research which are of most relevance to them
  • Identifying test cases in order to promote information to service users on accessing legal advice services, in particular, discrimination cases in relation to age, gender: LGBT, ethnicity etc.