So this will (probably) be my last blog post of 2011, just over a year since I wrote my f
irst one on the Legal Futures website (which you should read if you don’t, the website that is, not my post). I was inspired to write because I was fed up with just sighing loudly and shaking my head at the
absurd reporting of a survey suggesting most, if not all, high street law firms would come out of the ABS mangle alive. One year on, sadly, not much has changed with the way many lawyers think about the changes taking place in the legal market. Lots else has though.
Tagged:
ABS,
access to justice,
compensation culture,
consumers,
justice,
LASPO,
law firms,
law society,
lawyers,
legal aid,
quality solicitors,
solicitors from hellThis week will be crucial in the fight to save legal aid as the bill slashing its budget and restricting its scope enters its final stage in the House of Commons. Any objective, rational assessment of the provisions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) would surely come to the conclusion that this was a disaster on its way to happening. Unfortunately, being objective and rational isn’t a requirement for being in government.
Read more...Tagged:
access to justice,
Anna Soubry,
Boris Johnson,
David Cameron,
Dominic Grieve,
Helen Grant,
Jackson,
justice,
LASPO,
legal aid cuts,
Lord JudgeIn my last post I wrote about how administrative justice was the Cinderella of the justice system. I now think there is probably another candidate. If administrative justice is grown-up Cinderella waiting for the prince, then public legal education is baby Cinderella, who doesn’t even dare dream about him. As with any aspect of the law that isn’t about criminals or lawyers it doesn’t get much attention and even less money. But lack of column inches and scarcity of funds don’t mean something isn’t important.
Read more...It’s probably not quite close enough to Christmas to start employing pantomime analogies, but if there were ever a Cinderella in our justice system it is surely administrative justice. It’s not a phrase that trips easily off the tongue, most of the public have probably never heard of it, most lawyers don’t pay it much attention and even the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) barely mentions it in its business plan. Which is odd because, unlike criminal justice, most people will probably come into contact with it at some point.
Read more...Tagged:
administrative justice,
AJTC,
appeals,
AvMA,
benefit removal,
clinical negligence,
complaints,
justice,
LASPO,
legal aid cuts,
legislation,
Medical Justice,
Osborne,
policy,
Public Law ProjectI have a cat. I’m quite fond of him and I like having him around, but, if I’m honest, I don’t think he’d be too upset if I moved away and left him. He’d probably just go and live with the neighbour up the road where he seems to spend most of his time anyway. It’s what cats do. So it’s surely common sense that a cat couldn’t be a reason not to deport someone? Apparently not.
Read more...Tagged:
bill of rights,
catgate,
ECHR,
home secretary,
HRA,
human rights,
Human Rights Act,
justice,
Learco Chindamo,
legislation,
rule of law,
Theresa MayAs you probably know, I am not a big fan of lawyers. But I do have to concede that sometimes lawyers are not the only people who make me angry. It probably isn’t too surprising that one of my targets today is the insurance industry. It’s probably slightly more surprising that the other is Which?, the consumer group that, arguably, made me who I am.
Read more...Tagged:
Access to Justice Foundation,
compensation,
consumers,
insurance,
insurers,
justice,
LASPO,
legislation,
no win no fee,
referral fees,
success fees,
Which?,
whiplashThe Dale Farm saga has the power, it seems, to invoke passions as few other recent events. It has unleashed streams of vitriol on Twitter and in the blogosphere and a glut of contradicting information and claims. As well as the main protagonists, the Dale Farm residents and Basildon Council, a range of other supporting players have emerged to underline this isn’t just a legal, but a moral debate.
Read more...Being in power so you can implement party policy is the whole point of politics. At least, that’s what I have spent the last 20 odd years thinking. But, after just one evening at the Liberal Democrat conference, I have realised that actually the whole point of being in power is just that, being in power.
Read more...I wonder how many of the nearly 30,000 people who have signed the e-petition to bring back the death penalty have ever heard of
Todd Willingham. He was executed in Texas in February 2004 for the murder of his three young children, despite consistently protesting his innocence and serious doubts about the scientific evidence used to convict him.
Thinking about it now, it seems extraordinary that I rushed home on 3 October 1995 to see the live verdict of the OJ Simpson trial on TV. Along with over half of the US population and quite a large percentage of the UK one, I watched as he was found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife and her friend. I had never even heard of him before he was arrested and starred (I use the term deliberately) in what has been described as the trial of the century. It was all so over the top and showbiz it didn’t even occur to me that we should put TV cameras in English courts.
Read more...Normally I associate the 1980s with the Thatcher government, the miners’ strike, the Falklands war and alarming fashion decisions. I often forget it was also the decade that saw the end of apartheid in South Africa and the Berlin wall. But watching the Arab Spring spread across the Middle East has reminded me that these international events had as big an influence on me as did events on my own doorstep.
Read more...Tagged:
Amnesty International,
David Cameron,
death penalty,
Gaddafi,
human rights,
ICC,
international law,
justice,
Libya,
Robespierre,
UN Security CouncilThere are quite a lot of things I admire about the French. They make great cheese and damn fine wine, which they drink sensibly and often. They have ensured their beautiful capital city is not overshadowed by horrid skyscrapers and they are, on the whole, pretty stylish. I also like their devil-may-care attitude to anything they don’t approve of and I even have a grudging respect for their trade unions as they fly in the face of laissez-faire economics.
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