“Government attempts to promote mediation as an alternative to expensive courtroom divorce and custody battles are failing, according to figures obtained through freedom of information requests.”
The Guardian, 30th September 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“James Wilson salutes an iconic litigant in person.”
New Law Journal, 26th July 2013
Source: www.newlawjournal.co.uk
“Justice minister Lord McNally is facing criticism from lawyers over a claim that cases involving litigants in person (LiPs) are ‘normally’ completed more quickly than those where parties have legal representation.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 15th July 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“A woman has won a case of harassment against her bank after she was plagued by more than 500 calls for missing a single loan payment.”
Daily Telegraph, 8th July 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
The Daily Telegraph have recently introduced a limited paywall. Users will be permitted to view 20 Daily Telegraph articles per month for free, after which they will need to pay a subscription fee to access content.
“The government and judicial office must overhaul training, advice to litigants and the nature of the court process itself to deal with thousands more litigants in person (LIPs), a judicial working group has concluded.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 5th July 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“The Judicial Working Group on Litigants in Person – Report, July 2013.”
Judiciary of England and Wales, 5th July 2013
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
“What impact will the latest raft of legal aid cuts have on people fighting councils or who are wrongly accused of a crime? We ask former defendants, their families, lawyers and experts.”
The Guardian, 2nd July 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The absence of legal representation for defendants to an action for debt who contended they could not speak English resulted in the High Court granting an application that the trial be adjourned for a second time. The judgment is a good example of the interaction of Article 6 ECHR (right to a fair trial) with the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR).”
UK Human Rights Blog, 26th June 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Judges and Policy: A Delicate Balance (PDF)
Speech by Lord Neuberger
Institute for Government, 18th June 2013
Source: www.supremecourt.gov.uk
“A fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and the governed is taking place: by restricting access to the law, the state is handing itself an alarming immunity from legal scrutiny. There are several aspects to this: the partial or total withdrawal of state financial support for people who lack the means to pay for legal advice and representation; and for those who can pay, a restriction on which kinds of decision by public bodies can be challenged. In the area in which I work, criminal law, defendants who receive legal aid will lose the right to choose who represents them in court. Meanwhile, the misleadingly named Justice and Security Act, passed earlier this year, enables the government to conceal evidence from litigants by using national security as a trump card. All this is accompanied by an unbending hostility to human rights law, tainted by its association with Europe, even though this legislation at least offers the weak the possibility of redress for abuses by public authorities.”
London Review of Books, 6th June 2013
Source: www.lrb.co.uk
“Significant changes to civil legal aid in England and Wales came into effect on 1 April 2013, as part of a plan to reform the system and save £350m a year.”
BBC News, 18th June 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The family courts were under unprecedented pressure in the month following the introduction of the LASPO cuts which removed legal aid from most family cases, reports Jon Robins. Cafcass, which looks after the interests of children involved in family proceedings, reported that in May there were a total of 5,061 new private law cases ‘representing the highest ever month on record’. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 removed legal aid for all family cases except where was evidence of domestic violence as of April.”
LegalVoice, 13th June 2013
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
“The family court system is in danger of ‘collapsing in on itself’ after a surge in the number of warring parents turning up in person to launch child custody cases because of legal aid cuts, leading lawyers are warning.”
Daily Telegraph, 11th June 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“RE F (CHILDREN) 14 May 2013, Court of Appeal – A topical case, this, given legal aid cutbacks. It concerns the ability of unrepresented litigants to choose those to help them out as advocates in court. Not an unconstrained right, as this case demonstrates. The High Court ruled that a judge had been entitled to refuse an application for a particular person to act as a McKenzie friend despite that individual not being present in court at the time of the application. The Court of Appeal upheld that decision.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 24th May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Government plans to reform the regime for court fees remissions and introduce a means test are too severe and ‘will diminish access to justice for a sizeable group of low-income families’, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) has warned.”
Litigation Futures, 22nd May 2013
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
“Anna Heenan, solicitor and David Salter, Joint Head of Family Law at Mills & Reeve LLP analyse the April financial remedies and divorce news and cases.”
Family Law Week, 12th May 2013
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
“It was time to ‘move on’ from the ‘bruising’ LASPO debate, the Lord McNally said yesterday. The legal aid minister told delegates at an event organised by the Westminster Legal Policy Forum that this month’s cuts would save £180m per annum alone. ‘Yet on the criminal side, we’re still spending £1 billion every year. A significant proportion of this spending is swallowed up by a few very high cost cases,’ the legal aid minister added.”
LegalVoice, 24th April 2013
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
“Labour’s Lord Bach fought a good deal harder in the House of Lords to defend legal aid from the coalition’s cuts than many of his colleagues. But, the key provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 are now in force. Civil legal aid will never again have the comprehensive coverage that once it did: in particular, partners whose relationships break down are going to have a particularly hard time. No government, realistically, is going to restart funding at past levels. What can be done to assist the women who are most likely to be the major victims of these cuts?”
New Law Journal, 18th April 2013
Source: www.newlawjournal.co.uk
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