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11 April 2019 / Steve Hynes
Issue: 7836 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Profession
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Shine on! Legal aid at 70

The MoJ is travelling in the right direction but is it too little too late, asks Steve Hynes

It’s 70 years since the modern legal aid system was founded, and Legal Action Group (LAG) celebrated this auspicious occasion with a conference in London last week attended by the great and the good from the legal aid world.

A packed first plenary session heard from Baroness Hale,the president of the Supreme Court. Lady Hale is a long-time supporter of the charity who has described herself in the past as ‘a LAG generation lawyer.’ Her speech focused on family law, and she used a hypothetical example of a woman from Richmond, North Yorkshire—where she went to school—who had experienced domestic violence. She listed the websites and other sources of information the woman could use to navigate her way through the legal system and concluded the help available added up to ‘a patchy picture’ and that ‘technology solutions can help but they cannot replace proper advice from a skilled person.’ Lady Hale also said

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

mfg Solicitors—Hayley Pearce & Lauren Williams

mfg Solicitors—Hayley Pearce & Lauren Williams

Law firm mfg Solicitors announces promotions at Ludlow office

Womble Bond Dickinson—Richard Sharpe

Womble Bond Dickinson—Richard Sharpe

Womble Bond Dickinson appoints partner in Leeds residential team

Brabners—six promotions

Brabners—six promotions

Brabners adds six to partnership in record year for partner promotions

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Cross-border disputes increasingly demand creative approaches to gathering evidence, with litigators needing to look beyond traditional letters of request
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified the distinction between contracts of 'indefinite' and 'perpetual' duration, with potentially significant implications for commercial drafting
The Court of Appeal was entitled to uphold the government's decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, according to an analysis of the ruling
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