More results...
Now we know that the Lord Chancellor's vow to the Law Society that changes in non-criminal legal aid were postponed for a year only apply, post 'clarification', to Family, it is time for a serious look at the new contract for civil legal aid. First of all,...
After dipping its toe in the water of protest with a petition, as previously mentioned, the Law Society has finally decided that a campaign to defend legal aid might be in order. Only a year or several late, but I'd urge everyone to add their support, write...
Background. Another disrepair case against a private landlord. Another successful application for default judgement, granted about 6 months ago. Solid evidence. All the directions for quantum hearing complied with by us, to nil response from the landlord....
The Law Society's Defending Legal Aid campaign. Go here and sign up.
Tessa Shepperson, in an introduction to a Q&A makes a sound point that I think those of us who spend much of their time opposing local authorities tend to forget, which is that the Local Council's tenancy relation services, environmental or housing advice...
Readers may remember that I was concerned to the point of cyncism about the revelation that the Community Legal Service Direct phone line managed a referral rate to solicitors of 13%. I have now heard that the contracts for the pilot Community Legal Aid...
From a recent case, a fairly textbook example of how not to go about things as a private landlord. The client was a shorthold assured tenant, with a years' assured period and a monthly rent. Rent was paid by housing benefit, and the inevitable problems arose...
Jonathon Freedland has an eminently sensible opinion piece in the Guardian on why legal aid matters and where Carter is a disaster. The article is clear and impassioned, but also sadly true in suggesting that this is unlikely to be an issue that leads to the...
I was at a conference with a client and Counsel the other day at a certain Lincoln's Inn Fields chambers. The place was heaving with lighting stands, women with clipboards and the kind of unshaven, tool belted man that can only be a rigger. Lo, they were...
The Times Law blog suggests that the incoming age discrimination legislation could result in some bizarre misinterpretations, citing the QCA's frankly strange interpretation of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 as a prior example. This could well be...
Some of those of us metaphorically stripped to the waist at the civil legal aid coalface will be impressed or envious at the fast work of Scott-Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair, who have decided that it is better to pre-empt the Legal Services Commission's...
And just in case one wasn't depressed enough about legal aid... Yikes. I'd missed this in the Observer, as I was out of the country. Thanks to Tessa Shepperson again for picking it up and for her considered post. I share her misgivings about the reported...