Briefings | Young Legal Aid Lawyers

JCHR JR report

On 30 April 2014 the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) - a cross-party parliamentary committee composed of MPs and peers - published its report on the totality of the Government’s judicial review changes, including those contained within the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2014. These are the regulations which brought into effect from 22 April 2014 the new payment regime for judicial review work under legal aid. You can read more about the changes here.

Lords debate JR reforms - 7 May

On Wednesday 7 May the House of Lords will debate a regret motion tabled by Lord Pannick QC “to move that this House regrets that the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2014 make the duty of the Lord Chancellor to provide legal aid in judicial review cases dependent on the court granting permission to proceed. (SI 2014/607)”.

You can read more about the Judicial Review payment reforms here.

Further cuts to judicial review

On 5 February 2014 the Government announced that it would be going ahead with a series of changes to restrict access to judicial review. The changes – which were originally proposed in the November 2013 consultation Judicial review: proposals for further reform – include further cuts to legal aid and amendments to the rules on costs which will make it more difficult for charities and NGOs to intervene in judicial review proceedings.

Cuts - where are we now?

YLAL has produced a one-page updating guide to show where we are now with the current round of proposed legal aid cuts. You can download the leaflet below. Please distribute amongst work colleagues and friends and send to your MP to let them know that the recent Government announcement does not go far enough to save UK justice.

YLAL submissions to JCHR

YLAL has submitted evidence to the JCHR as part of their inquiry into the implications for access to justice of the Government's legal aid reforms. The submissions can be accessed via the link below.

Westminster debate - 4 Sept

There is a Parliamentary debate on the criminal legal aid reforms and price competitive tendering taking place at 0930 on 4 September 2013. We have prepared an updated briefing for this debate. Please do contact your MP, send them a copy of the briefing, and encourage them to attend.

The briefing can be downloaded here.

Meet with your MP

YLAL is encouraging all members, as well as writing to their MPs, to go and meet with them personally in order to raise awareness in Parliament of the devastating impact of the proposed changes to legal aid contained in the Transforming Legal Aid consultation.

Legal aid debate 27 June

The House of Commons will debate the Government's recent proposals to "reform" legal aid on Thursday 27 June 2013 (see this page for background to the Transforming Legal Aid consultation). The debate has been secured by Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather and Labour MP David Lammy.

Latest cuts... take action

Publicise the cuts - disseminate our one-page briefing

LASPO regs (again)

The Government has laid new regulations under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012. The Regulations introduce the new procedure that decision-makers will need to follow when granting legal aid to clients. We are very concerned in particular about two key issues.

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