Gemma reports on the Legal Aid Rally, and is pictured withma very shady character!
Monthly Archives: July 2013
64 years of Legal Aid
Gemma looks back on 64 years of Legal Aid
“If I hadn’t had legal aid I would be dead now”
Well. A promising response from Lord McNally. He and @mojgovuk can be sure that we will be keeping a close eye on them to see if the words are more than just words.
Well done to SaveUkJustice
This morning we went to meet Lord McNally, Minister of State for Justice, with two women who have received legal aid. We wanted the Minister to hear from people who have received legal aid directly what it means to them. As we were waiting to enter the Ministry of Justice we spotted Chris Grayling, so we hand delivered the clients’ letters to him too.
Laila’s story – fighting to be safe from persecution
- Laila’s letter to the Ministers
“I came to this country from Somalia to seek protection. When I made my asylum claim I was put in detention and my case was processed in the Fast Track system. Everything happened so quickly: after just two weeks my case had been refused. The Home Office did not even allow me time to get any evidence to support my case. I did not speak any English then and I did not really understand what was happening. Later…
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Question and Answer: ‘Transforming Legal Aid’
Gemma conducts her own consultation amongst various viewpoints within the profession. Well worth a read
A Note of a Meeting with the Lord Chancellor
A note of the Circuit Leaders’ meeting with the Lord Chancellor. He begins with the astonishing claim that the Bar are failing to engage. Not for want of trying Lord Chancellor, as MTQC will confirm. We have indeed put forward many proposals for saving waste and needless expenditure, which you appear not to have read yet.
He also wants to save money by cutting down on needless mentions, seemingly blissfully unaware that we are not paid for these anyway.
Is patently clear from this account that he is woefully underbriefed.
Read and decide for yourselves
I understand this note was compiled by the Leader of the Midlands and Oxford Circuit
NOTE OF MEETING WITH LORD CHANCELLOR
LC began by saying that he was surprised that the Bar was not engaging in the consultation process with him. He said that this in distinction to the Law Society who had come up with a set of proposals and were actively debating them with him.
We pointed out that we were engaging with him. The Bar was responsible for a large number of the responses that he had received to his consultation document and contained many reasons why what he proposed was not in the public interest. The responses contained a number of ways in which significant sums could be saved without cutting legal aid payments. We said that we were not prepared to engage in, for example, a debate as to how standards could be maintained in…
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A Fourth Letter to Lord McNally
Our world is all the richer for the deep vein of satire that the MoJ’s fumblings have inspired.
My Dearest Tommy,
May I first apologise for the frequency of my correspondence? I know now that it was how often that I felt moved to write to Richard Madeley that led to the injunction. I do appreciate how a mountain of correspondence can become tiresome in itself. I hope that the photos of me enjoying the sunshine whilst shopping in Tescos that I sent you on Snapchat have added some moments of levity to your day in these times of austerity.
However I could not let recent events pass without comment. You will, of course, recall what you said last week about litigants in person,
“There have always been a significant number of people representing themselves in court – they did in around half of all child custody cases last year – and we provide information and guidance to help them. Evidence shows that cases where people represent themselves…
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Guest Blog – Transforming Legal Aid: Meeting with Laura Sandys MP for Thanet South
Oliver Kirk, of BKRW Solicitors, is a very welcome returning guest to the CBA Blog. He was in the vanguard of High Street Solicitors in the fight to #saveukjustice.
Here is his account of his meeting with Conservative Thanet MP, Laura Sandys. Once again he puts the case, and puts right some of the inaccurate briefing that Tory MP’s are given by the MoJ.
To give Laura Sandys her due, she seems to have listened. Well done Oliver.
And you can follow him on Twitter as well @kirkabout
Open Letter to The President of The Law Society
Robert Hardy McBride writes an open letter to the new Law Society President on the plight of small firms and sole practitioners.
We welcome all views on this blog, and are very happy to reblog a contribution from an experienced and much respected High Street Solicitor
Dear President
Congratulations on your appointment and best wishes for your forthcoming months.
I write in connection with the Government’s proposal in relation to Criminal Law Legal Aid, i.e. Price Competitive Tendering (PCT)
The Law Society was recently stung by the criticism it received after revealing it’s “alternative” to the PCT proposals. The Society was expected it to be universally hailed as a suitable alternative but accepted it would not be popular in some corners.
The truth is that the proposals, if used, would have so many deleterious effects that it should be urgently withdrawn and reconsidered, properly, and a wider membership base directly consulted. It is understandable why there was wide spread criticism.
The Society did not, thankfully, address cuts as the powerful argument has been made and, hopefully won that:
- The Ministry’s assertion that Legal Aid costs are “spiralling” out of control have shown to be fallacious and…
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Monday Message 8th July. CBA observations on Law Society proposals
There has been a lot of comment on Social Media about Michael Turner QC’s remarks about the Law Society response to the MoJ last week.
The problem with Twitter, and to a lesser extent, Facebook, is the limited space to spell out an argument.
The ethos of this Blog, and our Twitter account, is expressed above. “A Place For The Voice of The Criminal Bar to be Heard.”
Well let’s extend that to Solicitors as well.
We have reprinted MTQC’s post below.
We invite constructive comments. If we know what you are thinking, hopefully we can put your ideas to good use.
But please remember. Unity is all, so #PlayNicely!
Following Mr Grayling’s appearance at the Justice Select Committee hearing, there has been a good deal of disquiet about the meeting he had with the Law Society in advance of giving evidence.
I would like to set out what happened at the Joint Practitioners meeting and how the proposals came about.
The President of the Law Society had arranged to meet with Mr Grayling initially after his evidence session before the Committee. Mr Grayling however sought to bring the meeting forward. The CBA together with the CLSA and the LCCSA advised that no meeting should take place until after Mr Grayling had given evidence, fearing that he would use such a meeting to try and break the current unity. The President insisted that she attend the re-scheduled appointment. Preferring that the President had an alternative proposal as to structure alone, the meeting sought to provide such a document. The scheme only dealt with the solicitor profession and said nothing in relation to the Bar. The proposal was a collaborative effort but there was no means unanimity as to the entirety of it.
The proposed scheme seeks to deal with two particular issues a) the spectre of the ghost solicitor and b) over supply in the market place.
No one can sensibly argue that the practice of selling duty solicitor slots should not be banished forever. What has caused alarm is the proposals for change coupled with the spin put upon them by Mr Grayling.
Far from seeking to crush small firms these proposals seek to protect them. Small firms will be allowed to maintain their size for a year, after which the Law Society may instruct them to take on further staff if wishing to remain in the market place. This could be as little as one extra duty solicitor. The firms will then have a year to comply. Additionally the Law Society is seeking to introduce a scheme whereby two one-man firms may come together under an umbrella management structure whilst maintaining their identity.
Whilst the CBA stood back from structuring this scheme, it appears it has a lot of merit to it. The BFG had wanted minimum contract sizes, which would have decimated the small firms. This proposal is nowhere near that. It allows the small firms to upsize slowly and proportionately.
There is absolutely no mention in the proposals of a cut in fees nor a concession from the Law Society that one is required.
Mr Grayling has failed to understand his own scheme. PCT is dead with client choice restored. You can not tender for a contract if you do not know what slice of the market place it gives you.
Mr Grayling’s reliance on this meeting gave the impression it was more than it was. He used it to try and drive a wedge between the Bar and solicitors profession. This attempt has sadly been assisted by others within the professions who should frankly know better.
All of us have pledged to fight cuts and PCT to the bitter end. We have joined side by side to do just that. Do not allow ignorance and spin to pull us apart.
Whilst there was no agreement as to the tactic of meeting Mr Grayling in advance of the Judicial Select Committee, the Law Society has not sought to sell either its own profession or ours short.
Richard Atkinson who has worked as hard as anyone to keep us all together explains the proposals HERE.
The only thing politicians are really good at is sowing the seeds of doubt in others. There is not a leader at the Bar or within the solicitors’ profession who is in favour of making cuts and indeed there is simply no moral or practical case for them. Indeed the opposite is true.
A Third Letter to Lord McNally
McNally and #BobNeill. Otherwise known in cinematic circles as “The Expendables”
Dear T-Mac (I have decided you are now worthy of a soubriquet which is down with the kids, feel free to reply to Biggie-G),
So much water has passed under the bridge since last I wrote. Things have gone so Peter Tong (as the kids say) since our last interaction I am not in the least surprised that you have not had the time to respond. And I should imagine that you are spending so much time reviewing who should remain in your Linked-In profile that I can understand that you have not yet had the opportunity of adding me to your network.
I should imagine one easy choice was pressing the “delete” option for that turncoat Grayling. Such a quisling. It would seem that in the last 7 days he has been everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE, declaring that he isn’t anti-choice after all. And not only has he…
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