Legal aid and Law Centres are under threat in the UK, along with the principle of equal access to justice. Geoffrey Bindman QC says it's time for the legal profession to dig into their pockets and help meet the gap in state funding. This week's Friday Essay.
Two years ago trained members of the public attending immigration bail hearings published their first report, "A Travesty of Justice". Today the Bail Observation Project reports again. Unfairness and lack of due process persist.
How we’ve managed to make protecting trafficking victims so complicated.
Alarming numbers of parents are being separated from their children indefinitely in the UK for the purposes of immigration control. It is difficult to imagine any other situation where children could have such scant attention paid to their welfare, says Sarah Campbell.
A Citizens Advice Bureau adviser describes how recent 'reforms' to legal aid and cuts to services are impacting on the ground. She has a question: At what point did Britain decide that legal rights don’t apply to poor people?
Although the fundamental injustice of poverty cannot be remedied by lawyers alone, legal aid is crucial to a fair and effective justice system. No government that makes it harder for the poor to navigate through the justice system can claim poverty reduction as a priority, says Kate Donald
Where do we stand when migrant children and young people in Britain cannot even secure basic access to justice?
The job seeker who set fire to himself in Birmingham appears to have been driven to this horrific act by an all-too-common glitch in the welfare system. A Citizens Advice Bureau worker explains how such desperation is only steps away for many seeking support from the British state.
As the legal aid bill reaches its final stage, Britain’s welfare state is set to take another debilitating blow. In this extract from ‘Public Service on the Brink’, Rebekah Carrier considers the obstacles that prevent lawyers working in the system from acknowledging the uncompromising reality of t
Today marks the final reading of the legal aid bill in the Lords. If - as seems likely - the bill goes through, 'ordinary people' in Britain will be shocked to discover how thin is their access to law when things go wrong. Deborah Padfield, whose work has for several years been funded by legal aid
Of course squatters are up in arms against the passing of a law that would criminalize squatting in residential properties. But will parliament also ignore opposition from legal experts, homelessness charities and the police?
The UK government says it wants to end abuse against women and girls but at the same time it is cutting vital funding to organisations in the front line. In London last weekend, the FEM 11 conference called for a new political strategy and for better funding of women’s services. Ray Filar was ther
