October 2009 Ministry of Justice review into the delivery of legal aid
The Ministry of Justice announced a review into the delivery of legal aid on 13th October and has invited Sir Ian Magee to assess the delivery and governance arrangements of the legal aid system and make recommendations to:
Press Notice: Ministry of Justice Press Notice.doc
Submission from the Young Legal Aid Lawyers: Young Legal Aid Lawyers Submission.pdf
Sir Ian MaGee published his report in March 2010.
Review of legal aid delivery and governance Sir Ian Magee 03.10.pdf
Press Release: Press Release
October 2009 Education Legal Advice Service
Law Centres are working together to deliver a free specialist legal advice service on education matters across London.
October 2009 Measuring young people’s legal capability
In 2008, the Public Legal Education Network commissioned Independent Academic Research Studies (IARS) to carry out an exploratory study on young people’s legal capability. The study published in 2009 signifies an important new approach to looking at the need for and delivery of public legal education. The research aimed to get a better understanding of the components of legal capability to help develop a conceptual model that could provide the basis for a future baseline survey of the levels and types of legal capability in the wider population. The study considered young peoples’ knowledge, skill and attitudes to legal problems. The research was launched by Lord Bach on 16th October 2009.
Measuring young peoples legal capability.pdf
October 2009 Employment Tribunal Representation Project
London Law Centres are working in partnership to provide Employment Tribunal (ET) representation and representation at the Employment Appeals Tribunals (EAT) for those people that cannot afford to pay for legal advice and representation.
October 2009 Unfinished Business
Editorial in the October edition of Legal Action Group Bulletin. LAG argues that as well as providing leadership, it is essential that the Ministry of Justice develops a strategy for Public Legal Education (PLE) that prioritises the sections of the public that need to be targeted, and gives sustainable funding.
‘PLE’s main social use is in convincing people that the law is something positive which can be used to help them and should not be either avoided or feared. The knowledge of the rights and duties which the law protects is a vital element of social engagement and helps to create a better society. For many marginalised groups, the legal literacy which PLE brings about provides them with an alternative to shouting and asking for the manager or, worse, doing nothing when faced with a problem and becoming disillusioned.’
LAG PLE Unfinished Business October 2009.doc
The article coincided with the launch of the research into measuring young people’s legal capability. Other papers referred to in the article can be found below.
Link: Legal Action Group
October 2009 All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid set up in June 2009 aims to: ‘to promote parliamentary and public understanding of the importance of the role of publicly funded legal services as a pillar of the welfare state and in reducing inequalities in society to scrutinise and influence any proposals for the reform of legal aid provision to ensure that access to justice for all members of society is preserved and improved.’
Members of APPG
Karen Buck (Chair), Diane Abbott, Rosie Cooper, Andrew Dismore, David Drew, Sally Keeble, Julie Morgan, David Taylor, Lyn Brown, Baroness Uddin (Labour).
Henry Bellingham (Vice Chair), Peter Bottomley, David Burrowes, Oliver Heald, Mark Field, Gary Streeter, David (TC) Davies, Geoffrey Cox QC (Conservative).
Paul Holmes (Vice Chair), David Howarth, Steve Webb, Lord Philips (Andrew Philips) (Liberal Democrat).
The first meeting will place on 3rd November 2009 at the House of Commons.
Launch of All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid: Launch of All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid.doc
Link to Legal Aid Practitioners Group and Young Legal Aid Lawyers
Link to: All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid
October 2009 Outreach Advice for Debt Problems
‘Outreach Advice for Debt Problems: Research and Evaluation of Outreach Services for Financially Excluded People ‘ by Alexy Buck, Laurie Day, Sharon Collard, Marisol Smith and Ash Patel from the Legal Services Research Centre published the research in October 2009.
The research found that outreach services were very successful in reaching socially and financially excluded people who had not sought advice before, building new partnerships, and delivering advice at new locations. Overall, less than 10 per cent of clients reported having previously sought advice in relation to a debt problem The advice led to a range of positive outcomes for clients, including payment plans, crisis avoidance, averting the loss of a home or utilities disconnection and gaining nearly £1.9 million as income for clients in a one-year period. The advice also achieved ‘softer’ outcomes such as reduced stress and, importantly, changed attitudes to advice seeking. Most clients said they were optimistic about avoiding future debts, although this was often thought to be challenging to achieve given their difficult life circumstances.
The research highlighted how outreach needs to be moulded to specific challenges ‘on the ground’: different types of outreach locations serve different users and a range of different barriers need to be overcome to achieve effective outreach advice in a given location. For example, there are significant logistical and cultural challenges to delivering advice to prisoners, a highly financially excluded group.
LSRC Research: Outreach Advice for Debt Problems.pdf
Article in LSC Focus magazine: LSRC Focus Research October 2009.doc
Link to: Legal Services Research Centre Publications
October 2009 Beyond Tolerance - EHRC Sexual Orientation Project
During 2008 and 2009, the Equality and Human Rights Commission carried out extensive research into the experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Britain today. Their findings have been published in ‘Beyond Tolerance’ . The paper reports on what needs to be done to tackle the damaging discrimination and disadvantage lesbian, gay and bisexual people face and where organisations will need to focus in order to address the changes required.
The report: Beyond Tolerence.pdf
More about EHRC’s Beyond Tolerance Project
Commission has also produced six supplementary reports on a range of specific issues. Link to EHRC reports
Related research
EHRC Research report 36
‘Integration in the workplace: emerging employment practice on age, sexual orientation and religion or belief’ by Sue Bond and Emma Hollywood (Employment Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University) and Fiona Colgan (Comparative Organisation and Equality Research Centre, London Metropolitan University) examines good practice in relation to recruitment, promotion or advancement at work based on the three equality strands of age, sexual orientation and religion or belief. The research evidence will form the basis of a good practice document on recruitment, promotion and advancement at work to be developed by the Commission.
The Report: Integration in the Workplace.pdf
October 2009 New family legal aid fixed fees
In October, the Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Commission amended their plans for family legal aid following responses to their recent consultation. The LSC received 1,491 responses, of which over 800 were individual barristers to the consultation “Family Legal Aid Funding from 2010” that focused on the Private Family Law Representation Scheme and Family Advocacy Scheme. In a summary of responses the LSC admitted that:
“that there is a considerable depth of feeling in relation to the proposals and great concern over their potential impact on family providers undertaking legally aided work and on the Family Justice System”
A key theme running through responses was that “the fee levels had been set too low and that they would not be prepared to work at these rates.”
As a result, several changes to the original proposals have been made, including:
However, David Emmerson, Chair of Resolution’s Legal Aid Committee has warned:
“The potential of these new fees to cause substantial and long term damage to the provision of family legal aid for separating families has been grossly underestimated,”
“Some of these fees represent a cut of more than 40 percent to hourly rates that have already remained static for the last ten years. Faced with this uneconomic scenario there is a very real danger that firms will walk away from legal aid work, further undermining access to justice.”
The number of family legal aid practices in the country has dramatically dropped, from 4,500 in 2000 to 2,800 in 2006.
The schemes will be implemented from October 2010.
LSC Consutation: LSC Family Legal Aid Funding From 2010 Consultation.pdf
LSC Response: LSC Family Legal Aid 21.10.09.pdf
Press Notice: MoJ Press Release 21.10.09.doc
Ministerial Statement: Written Ministerial Statement from Bridget Prentice.doc
Link: Legal Services Commission
Comments from Resolution: Resolution 21.10.09.doc
September 2009 Legal Aid: Refocusing on Priority Cases
The Ministry of Justice published ‘Legal Aid: Refocusing on Priority Cases’ on 16th July 2009.
The paper set out proposals for reforming the legal aid rules. They included strengthening public interest considerations in deciding whether to grant civil legal aid; ceasing to provide funding for low priority civil and criminal matters, where issues can be resolved instead through complaints procedures or ombudsman schemes; restricting access to civil legal aid for those not resident in the UK; and notifying the other side when civil legal aid is applied for to discourage fraudulent applications.
Consultation Paper: Legal aid Refocusing on priority cases.pdf
Some Reponses
Advice Services Alliance: ASA 13.10 .09.pdf
Public Law Project: Public Law Project 01.10 09.pdf
Immigration Law Practitioners Association: ILPA 08.10.09.pdf
Matrix Chambers: Matrix Chambers 10.09.pdf
Young Legal Aid Lawyers: Young Legal Aid Lawyers.pdf
