Although it is not directly related to housing law, I feel I ought to draw readers attention to an excellent comment in the Law Society Gazette from Michael Burdett who previously helped the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to set up the CDS (i.e. Criminal Defence Service) direct scheme. As someone who has worked with the…
I was very concerned to read in the Law Society Gazette today that if the proposed reforms to legal aid go ahead, it will lead to the ‘immediate dismantlement’ of specialist civil liberty legal teams in some firms. This is because cases dealt with by specialist providers tend to be more complex and time-consuming and…
Of course it could all be part of a plan. “Getting a bit expensive to pay all those solicitors. Why not make it really difficult for them. Death of a thousand cuts. No-one will believe them when they complain, no voters will anyway. They are just whinging solicitors wanting more gravy. Then when there are…
There was a big lawyers demo against the legal aid ‘reforms’ at Parliament today, but so far as the early evening news was concerned it might just as well not have happened… As we work from home we are able to watch the news at lunch time. I was encouraged to see a rather good…
The Law Society Gazette was rather a worrying read this week. Amid tales of criminal legal aid solicitors going on strike, and DCA leadership not being fit for purpose, was this news item on plummeting legal aid housing contracts which have fallen from 840 to 587 – a drop of some 30%. A bet that…
We are huge Doctor Who fans in our house, so when I bought some lapel mikes for my recording equipment, my son Patrick insisted that I interview him as a Dalek. Landlord and tenant law on Skaro seemed the obvious choice of topic, although purists will realise that of course this interview is impossible as…
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More bonkers Legal Services Commission rules
I had a conversation recently with a worker at a legal ‘not for profit’ organisation (who wishes to remain anonymous) who is in despair about their Housing Court Desk Duty Scheme. She had been using student volunteers in addition to the qualified helpers. The student volunteers were all law students from a local college. They…