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
YLAL South West 07.02.2017
Post date: 13th of February 2017We met at the University of Law, Bristol, on 7 February 2017 for our event 'Uncovering the truth behind deaths in custody', hearing from experts on the law and procedures that apply when individuals die in state detention.
Read more...Legal aid news - January 2017
Post date: 6th of February 2017Welcome to our update of the latest legal aid and access to justice news from January 2017. If you would like to catch up on the most important legal aid news from 2016, read our Year in Review.
2016: Year in Review
Post date: 1st of February 20172016 was quite a year in politics and current affairs. It was also a year with many significant developments in legal aid and access to justice, and we have rounded up all of the most important stories from our regular legal aid news updates throughout 2016.
Read more...SRA consultation response
Post date: 14th of January 2017On 9 January 2017, YLAL responded to the second consultation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on its proposal to introduce a Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), intended to serve as a common professional assessment for all solicitors on the point of qualification. You can read our full response to the consultation below, and our response to the initial consultation on the SQE in March 2016 here.
Read more...Legal aid news - December 2016
Post date: 4th of January 2017Happy new year, and welcome to our update of the latest legal aid and access to justice news from the festive period.
Email to MPs: Bach Commission
Post date: 4th of December 2016Ask your MP to protect the most the vulnerable in society by supporting legal aid and access to justice.
The Access to Justice Commission chaired by Labour peer Lord Bach released a damning interim report last week on “the crisis in the justice system of England and Wales”.
Read more...Legal aid news - November 2016
Post date: 29th of November 2016Welcome to our update of the latest legal aid and access to justice news from November 2016, featuring the interim report by Labour's Bach Commission on Access to Justice, a welcome U-turn by the government on immigration and asylum tribunal fees and much more.
Becoming a Legal Aid Lawyer
Post date: 11th of November 2016On Wednesday 9 November 2016, we held a careers event, 'Becoming a Legal Aid Lawyer', at London South Bank University. Young Legal Aid Lawyers co-chairs Oliver Carter and Rachel Francis presented an introduction to YLAL and a brief history of legal aid, from the Poor Prisoners Defence Act 1903, which introduced criminal legal aid for defendants in the higher criminal courts, to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ('LASPO'), which wholly or partially removed a number of areas of law from the scope of legal aid.
YLAL North minutes 01.11.2016
Post date: 5th of November 2016On 1 November, YLAL North groups in Manchester and Sheffield heard from Lawyers Against Poverty about their exerience of the refugee crisis in Jordan.
In June 2016, three solicitors embarked on a fact-finding mission to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan as part of a Lawyers Against Poverty project.
Read more...Justice Denied: TUC report
Post date: 5th of November 2016TUC Report finds women and children have been disproportionately affected by the devastating impact of LASPO, by Emma Fitzsimons