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08 February 2018 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7780 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus
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The justice gap revisited

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Jon Robins pays tribute to Sir Henry Brooke—a tireless & effective campaigner

Yet further evidence of the health benefits of early access to legal advice was published last month. It was revealed that almost one-third of people with legal problems in the UK suffered a stress-related or physical illness as a result. The research was part of the New York-based World Justice Project’s (WJP) annual Rule of Law Index.

That finding chimed with the experience in other countries. In the UK, 31% of respondents who experienced a legal issue over the past two years said they had developed some form of illness as a result which was the same figure as Canada and 1% higher than the US.

This April will mark the fifth anniversary of the biggest cuts to the legal aid scheme in the UK since it was introduced after the Second World War. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removed around £600m from the legal aid budget by cutting entire areas of law from

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