header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us

Things are looking up

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All Rights Reserved.
18 September 2015 / David Burrows
Issue: 7668 / Categories: Features , Family
printer mail-detail

Mr Justice Collins & IS: good legal aid news for family litigants & protected parties says David Burrows

Section 10 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) and its exceptional case funding (ECF) was described by the Ministry of Justice as the safety net for clients who need representation in civil proceedings (mostly family law, housing and immigration). Until IS v The Director of Legal Aid Casework & Anor [2015] EWHC 1965 (Admin), [2015] All ER (D) 149 (Jul)—judgment handed down on 15 July 2015—the net’s mesh seemed large. Even since IS the availability of legal aid and the process of applying for it will be no breeze—for lay applicants and legal advisers alike. However, IS will be a substantial step forward for such applicants, and a means for civil legal aid lawyers proportionally to improve their work-base, so viciously altered since April 2013.

In June 2014 Collins J found the Lord Chancellor’s original Exceptional Funding Guidance (Non-Inquests) (Guidance I: issued by the Lord Chancellor under LASPO, s 4(3)(b)) to be

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
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
Read All
NLJ this week: Fraud claims climb as courts brace for AI threats
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
NLJ this week: Pro bono power without the red tape
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
NLJ this week: Trans pool player loses discrimination fight
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
NLJ this week: Courts walk a tightrope on relocation & abuse
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
NLJ this week: Traders’ convictions quashed in Libor shock
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
Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll