header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
31 July 2008 / Anthony Burton
Issue: 7332 / Categories: Features
printer mail-detail

What price justice?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.

The future for criminal legal aid lies with the factory firms of solicitors, says Anthony Burton

Almost 14 years ago this journal published an article “The demise of criminal legal aid” based on an address I gave at the International Bar Association's 25th Biennial Conference in Melbourne Australia (see 144 NLJ 6669, p 1,491). My paper included a rail against the systematic dismantling of the criminal legal aid scheme by the then lord chancellor, Lord Mackay. I argued that the criminal legal aid system had been the victim of a revolution zealously orchestrated by the lord chancellor, driving home Thatcherite policies leading to the destruction of the whole philosophical basis for legal aid. It transpires that he had barely scratched the surface. Tony Blair's lord chancellors succeeded in trumping their predecessors with cost-driven measures leading to a further erosion of choice and access to quality representation.

The legal aid scheme was set up 60 years ago in 1948 following the Lord Rushcliffe's Report of the Committee on Legal Aid and Legal Advice for Poor Persons in

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
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
Read All
NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

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

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
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
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
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
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
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
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
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
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll