header-logo header-logo

24 January 2025
Issue: 8101 / Categories: Legal News , Legal aid focus
printer mail-detail

NLJ this week: Flawed again on legal aid

204796
The Ministry of Justice’s latest review of civil justice has failed to inspire Roger Smith, former director of Justice. In his NLJ column this week, he reveals he read all seven reports over the new year and ‘did so with a heavy heart’.

The reason is it suffers the same ‘crucial structural weaknesses’ of previous reviews. Smith, a seasoned legal aid and access to justice commentator, is well-positioned to judge.

Among several criticisms levelled by Smith, the review ‘largely perpetuates the heresy that legal aid means aid provided by private practice lawyers’. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Partner and Manchester office lead appointed head of family

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

DWF insurance services director appointed to Civil Justice Council

R3—Jodie Wildridge

R3—Jodie Wildridge

Kings Chambers barrister appointed chair of R3 Yorkshire

NEWS

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
back-to-top-scroll