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Book review: Legal Aid Handbook 2018/19

31 January 2019 / Patrick Allen
Issue: 7826 / Categories: Features , Legal aid focus
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  • Editors: Vicky Ling, Simon Pugh & Sue James
  • Publisher: Legal Action Group
  • ISBN: 978-1912273003 
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: £60

The Legal Aid Handbook is an essential item in the toolkit of any practitioner handling legal aid work. The latest edition is edited by Vicky Ling, Simon Pugh and Sue James, all of whom have extensive legal aid experience (Vicky Ling actually worked for the Legal Aid Board for some years in the 1990s). The handbook covers pretty much everything you would need to know about civil and criminal legal aid, cost claims and the policy framework in one volume.

Given the extensive cutbacks in legal aid scope and funding over the last few years you might think this would be a thin volume, but, of course, this is not the case. The legal aid which remains after the cuts still is bound by complex rules and statutory instruments and practitioners need to find their way through the minefield to conduct any

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

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