Articles
May 2009 A step back in time to 1971 - Interview with Amanda Finley
The Legal Services Commission published an interview with Amanda Finley, legal services strategy director at the Ministry of Justice in the June edition of their magazine, Focus. Amanda retired in May 2009.
Amanda remembered Law Centres as an exciting development in he 1970s. She said, ‘When I started in 1971 Law Centres were just coming in and I found them very exciting places to visit..People had become far more aware of their legal rights in the 1960s and were becoming more assertive. That is particularly relevant at the moment because legal services reform will lead to new ways of getting legal advice to people..Just like now lawyers were worried in the1970s that new forms of legal provision would cause them to lose clients. But the reverse proved to be true and I think it will be the same in the future. The legal profession will benefit from these new ways of providing help. ‘The way Law Centres developed in the 1970s was extremely empowering for the people involved..’
A copy of the interview is here: LSC_Interview_with_Ms_Amanda_Finley_May_2009.doc
April 2009 Reaching those in need
Article, ‘Reaching those in need’ by Mike Dailly, principal solicitor, Govan & Govanhill Law Centres in the April edition of the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland, ‘Celebrating 60 years of the Law Society in Scotland’.
The author asks, ‘How can Scotland’s legal profession and laws better reach those in need?’ and argues that ‘we need to start challenging the fact that too many of our laws and legal remedies are inaccessible, while too many of our public and private bodies ignore the law as a matter of course’. Mike Dailly suggests that funding for the Scottish Legal Aid Board be redirected to ‘free professional legal resource that could target unmet legal need locally’. ‘So let’s redirect some of the Board’s self-funding or operational costs to the front line – let’s use this public money to create an independent community law centre in every local authority area across Scotland. A centre that doesn’t have to means test, and a centre that can target the unmet legal needs of the most vulnerable of our citizens at a local level.’
Reaching_those_in_need_April_2009.doc
March 2009 Law Centres off the danger list
Article by Deven Pamben in the Law Society Gazette on 12th March 2009:
Law_Society_Gazette_12.03_.09_.doc
February 2009 Low-paid suffer from legal aid cuts
Article by Tracy McVeigh in the Observer on 1st February 2009.
‘Red tape and lower fees have forced more than half the lawyers who accepted clients on state aid to pull out in the past decade.’
The_Observer_1.2_.09_.doc
January 2009 Let’s not be too misty eyed about legal aid, but it is at a crossroads
Article in The Times by Jon Robins published on 21st January 2009.
‘This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 — and lawyers will not need reminding that legal aid was conceived as a cornerstone of the welfare state. Now, according to the Ministry of Justice, fewer than one in three people is eligible for publicly funded legal advice (29 per cent). By contrast, in the first years of the scheme, eight out of ten people were eligible.’
Article: Times_Online_23.01_.09_.doc
Also see an article ‘Crisis in the legal aid system’ in ‘Socialist Party’: Crisis_in_legal_aid_Socialist_Party_2009.doc
To mark the 60th anniversary of legal aid, the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission set up a new website: Legal Aid at 60
December 2008 Endless new criminal laws, a massive increase in people jailed, and a rise in fear of crime
More than 50 new criminal justice bills have been introduced by New Labour since they came to power in 1997, according to a report in Society Matters, the newspaper of the OU’s Social Sciences faculty.
Labour has created more than 3,055 new criminal offences, passed 115,000 pages of legislation and introduced more than 50 Bills, including 24 criminal justice measures. Compare this with the 60 years between 1925 and 1985 when governments managed to get by with only six Criminal Justice Acts, an average of one every decade.
November 2008 Law Centres under pressure
Article by Fiona Bawden published by Legal Action Group in November 2008 on the unique contribution made by Law Centres in the provision of legal services to the most needy and their struggle to survive in the face of fixed fees and the advent of competition from the commercial sector.
Article: LAG_Article_Nov08_.pdf
October 2008 Ministry of Justice planned savings to the legal services budget
Two articles published in The Times on 15th October.
‘Legal Services ‘cut to the bone’ as crunch hits’ by Frances Gibb, Legal Editor and
‘Jack Straw’s cutback will be mirrored across the rest of government’ by Jill Sherman, Richard Ford and Frances Gibb.
Legal_Services_Cuts_October_2008.doc
September 2008 Inside Housing ‘Law Centres battle for life’
An article about Law Centres by Beena Nadeem was published on 5th September in Inside Housing. It reported that Law Centres providing specialist housing advice are being wiped out at an alarming rate.
View a copy of the article here: Inside_Housing_05.09_.08_.doc
May 2008 Communities face threat of legal exclusion
Article by Steve Hynes, director of Legal Action Group in the Solicitors Journal 27th May 2008
Solicitors_Journal_-_Communities_face_threat_of_exclusion_27th_May.doc
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