Legal aid focus

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Lawyers have hailed the first increase in civil legal aid in 30 years—an extra £20m for housing and immigration. The last funding rise was in 1996.

Duty solicitors at police stations will receive an extra £18.5m from 6 December, while legal aid lawyers at youth courts will get a £5.1m boost for the most serious cases, the Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood has confirmed.

It feels like civil legal aid has been in crisis forever—so is the current system simply irreparable? In this week’s NLJ, Roger Smith, former director of JUSTICE, argues that we need a radical rethink.

Roger Smith on why he believes the model of civil legal aid developed as part of the post-war welfare state is bust

Firms are continuing to abandon civil legal aid work, with 1,236 firms contracted with the Legal Aid Agency this year, compared to 1,320 last year and 1,500 in 2019-20

Roger Smith reflects on the radical vision that created law centres & left a lasting legacy

Criminal solicitors have been advised by their own professional body to consider quitting rather than ‘hanging on’ if they find criminal legal aid work financially unviable

Criminal Bar Association (CBA) chair Mary Prior KC has called on the Ministry of Justice to publish a report on the state of criminal legal aid it ‘has been in possession of’ for two months

The Lord Chancellor will decide by the end of November whether and, if so, by how much, to increase immigration legal aid fees, as part of a settlement with Duncan Lewis Solicitors

Boosting government investment in the civil legal aid system could create spin-off savings in other sectors, a Law Society-commissioned study by Frontier Economics has calculated

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS

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Public Accounts Committee warn of ‘extinction’ risk for legal aid

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has not done enough to protect the future sustainability of the legal aid market, MPs have warned

NLJ this week: The insider returns

Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome

NLJ this week: Drawing the line on contempt

After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights

NLJ this week: Stop and search by the numbers

The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains

NLJ this week: Looking back on the prorogation that never was

Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously

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Legal aid focus

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly