Our latest event, Access to Justice Under Attack: Brexit, Charlie Gard and the Rule of Law was held on 12 October 2017 at Bristol Law Society. It took the form of a panel event and was chaired by Helen Law from Matrix Chambers, who did a fantastic job of tying together the key themes arising from the four talks, which all came at the issues from a different angle but demonstrated the inherent injustices in the current system.
YLAL's vice-chair Siobhan Taylor-Ward writes for YLAL's series in Legal Voice; This (young legal aid) life.
"I have been asked by the Home office to provide the client with the decision as she has been referred for safeguarding. I break the news that her claim has been refused. Her face crumples in tears. The baby in the pram beside her knows enough to place her tiny hand upon her mum’s knee.
"She tells me her baby died in Africa — it was cot death — her claim stems from this one incident and its repercussions.
YLAL's Heather Thomas writes for the Solicitors Journal:
Looking after looked-after children
Heather Thomas considers how the fundamentally different disciplines of family law and criminal law can work together to help achieve better outcomes for vulnerable children
Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) welcomes the final report of the Bach Commission on Access to Justice, published today (22 September 2017), as a vital contribution to the public debate about access to justice and legal aid.
Our London meeting on Wednesday 13 September 2017 at Hodge Jones & Allen focussed on the recent Court of Appeal judgment on legal aid for prisoners and the work of the Howard League for Penal Reform, with Simon Creighton of Bhatt Murphy and Marie Franklin of the Howard League joining us as guest speakers.
On 26 July 2017, YLAL responded to the latest consultation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on its proposal to introduce a Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). The consultation, 'A new route to qualification: New Regulations', concerned the regulation of the SQE and the recognition of qualified lawyers under the SQE scheme.
Report of the inaugural APPG meeting of the new Parliament – 12.07.2017
From Grenfell Tower to unrepresented children to the collapse in legal aid providers, LASPO impedes access to justice
“Where is the Rule of Law when Parliament denies justice to those who can least afford it?”
Carol Storer, the director of Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG), joined us as a guest speaker to discuss what happens next for legal aid, following this month’s election. Ollie introduced Carol, noting that we had expected this meeting to be about the implications of a significant Conservative majority government. However, we now have a hung Parliament with a minority Conservative government, and a strengthened Labour party which is the most pro-access to justice in recent memory.
Carol covered a number of topics on upcoming challenges and opportunities, including:
YLAL co-chair Oliver Carter's latest article for the JusticeGap, published in May 2017 covers our pre-election debate on access to justice featuring lawyer-politician representatives of the Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
You can read the rest of Ollie's articles published on The Justice Gap through his author archive
On Wednesday 10 May 2017, Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) held a pre-general election debate at Garden Court Chambers in London on Access to Justice After the Election, with representatives of the main political parties setting out their respective policies on legal aid and access to justice.
The panel consisted of:
