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The justice gap revisited

08 February 2018 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7780 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus
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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 its

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
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
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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