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All for one, & one for all?

10 November 2017 / David Greene
Issue: 7769 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Profession
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Post Unison , the government, the courts & the profession are all looking at the issue of access to justice & what it means to ensure it’s a reality, says David Greene

Remarkably, access to justice has become a topic to discuss again and perhaps there is a mood change in those discussions away from the penury that has been meted out to both civil and criminal justice over the past 10 years.

The Supreme Court started the latest round of debate in July with its ground breaking judgment in R (Unison) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51. The bench took up the argument that many have sought to press for many years against the cuts in legal aid, some of the Jackson reforms and the increases in court fees, namely that the ability to access the justice process is not just for the good of the parties to a particular claim but for the good of society as a whole. The court commented that the view that the justice process only
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DWF—19 appointments

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NEWS
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Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
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