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25 June 2021 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7938 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Profession , Human rights
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Justice in a time of austerity…revisited

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Those people who bear the brunt of the pandemic also suffer disproportionately from a broken justice system, as Jon Robins reports

Over 12 months between ending late 2019 I travelled the country interviewing people about their experiences of the justice system in a project undertaken together with Dr Dan Newman.

Dan, a senior law lecturer at Cardiff University, mapped the local legal advice sector and I did the ‘on location’ interviews. The book (Justice in a time of austerity: Stories from a system in crisis) is published this week.

Our journey began on a Monday morning at Stratford Hearing Centre in east London where we shadowed housing duty adviser, Simon Mullings—as I reported in NLJ (‘Justice in a time of austerity’). There were 12 rent possession cases on a housing list but, on a busy day, it stretched to 20 people—typically, each person has less than five minutes before the court.

Tenants didn’t know what to expect and they certainly didn’t expect

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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