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Injustice clustered: a stacked system

18 February 2021 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7921 / Categories: Features , Legal aid focus
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The ‘single-issue’ approach of the legal system ensures it is stacked against the disadvantaged, says Jon Robins

Social welfare lawyers will recognise the scenario. The flustered client who arrives with their shopping bag stuffed full of unopened correspondence. Each bill reveals one more unresolved issue. Problems rarely arise singularly but, like buses, they tend to come all at once and when they do, they are overwhelming.

Legal policy wonks have a name for the phenomenon: ‘problem clusters’. Someone loses their job, they can’t afford to pay their rent or mortgage, they have problems claiming welfare benefits, etc. It has been the subject of debate in the legal aid world, and some controversial policy initiatives, since the influential 2004 study Causes of Action: Civil Law and Social Justice.

Yet lawyers, the courts and much of the administrative bureaucracy surrounding public bodies, operate on a ‘single-issue’ basis. It is that complexity, and the indifference of our legal system to it, that is the subject of a fascinating and thoughtful book by Luke

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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
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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