Articles Archive
Below are all our previously published articles and news items - blog posts will be included here too.
There are also 2 wordpress blog sites which we previously used and for whom content is still available, although they are not currently being updated:
View from the Gravy Train
Thanks 2 Legal Aid
Minimum salary at risk
Post date: 21st of January 2012The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has proposed scrapping the minimum salary for trainee solicitors. Young Legal Aid Lawyers is deeply concerned about the proposal and how it will impact on access to and social mobility within the profession.
Read more...Legal aid cuts a false economy
Post date: 14th of January 2012Kings College have published a report Unintended Consequences: the cost of the Government’s Legal Aid Reforms, analysing the knock-on costs to the forthcoming legal aid cuts. The report argues that the Goverment has significantly overestimated the money that it will save by cutting legal aid.
Read more...What shall we do without legal aid?
Post date: 17th of December 2011Please read this excellent speech by Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, Vice-President of the Law Society, recounting the historical origins of legal aid and warning of the damage that will be caused by the forthcoming legal aid cuts.
Read more...International Women's Day - your help is needed!
Post date: 17th of December 2011Unequal before the law? Independent report published
Post date: 3rd of December 2011Unequal before the law publishes the findings of an independent Commission of Inquiry into legal aid, organised by the Young Legal Aid Lawyers and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. The Commission was led by Diana Holland, assistant general secretary of the trade union Unite, Evan Harris, former Liberal Democrat MP and the Reverend Professor Nicholas Sagovsky, until recently the canon of Westminster Abbey: three non-partisan and independent-minded experts, each with a long track record of promoting social justice in their communities.
Read more...Legal Aid Bill - commons second reading
Post date: 3rd of December 2011The second reading of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill will take place in the House of Commons on 29th June 2011. Please ask your MP to attend. Their contact details can be found here.
YLAL have prepared a briefing for members to send to their MPs. This can be downloaded here.
Response to funding cuts consultation
Post date: 3rd of December 2011
Between July and August 2011 the Government carried out an extremely limited consultation on cutting the fees which are paid to Law Firms and Not for Profits for carrying out legal aid work. The consultation ended on 10th August 2011.
Read more...