Jeremy Corbyn announces legal aid review | PoliticsHome.com
Jeremy Corbyn has announced a review into what he dubs the Government’s “assault on legal aid”.
Changes brought in under the coalition government left some kinds of cases, such as those regarding family, employment, welfare and housing law, ineligible for legal aid.
Lord Bach will consider the consequences of Coalition reforms and put forward policy proposals.
Labour leader Mr Corbyn said the changes have left people without necessary advice. “[The reforms] have resulted in many of our fellow citizens, often the poor and marginalised not being able to get advice or representation when they are faced with legal problems such as housing, welfare benefits, debt and employment,” Mr Corbyn argued. He said the Government “refuses” to review the “disastrous” consequences of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act.
Source: Jeremy Corbyn announces legal aid review | PoliticsHome.com
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Justice should not be a commodity. Go Jez!
About time. The lawyers and barristers have been on strike to change the end of the right to justice for all the “stock” (as Ian drunken twat calls us) since aid was withdrawn corruption has taken hold in social services and councils. the sanction murders would have been nipped in the bud and I would not have had my pension stolen by the DWP.
A humanitarian leading a Parliamentary Party seems seems very odd idea in our current times of tyranny divisiveness and oppression! That shows how bad this Government is. Well done Corbyn.
My son in law was one of those affected by the changes to Legal Aid. He and his ex-girlfriend had a son five years ago, and even though his name is on the birth certificate, his ex has made it as difficult as possible for him to see his little boy on a regular basis. This has had a really bad effect on his son who loves his father dearly, and who is dreadfully upset every time his mother cancels a planned visit to see him. He is now exhibiting behavioral problems, both at school and at home, and keeps begging his father to let him live with him. Under the old system, my son in law would have been eligible for Legal Aid to apply for a ruling from the Court for regular access, but now cases like this are not covered by Legal Aid, and as my son in law is an apprentice on very low wages, he cannot afford to pay for legal representation. Consequently, all he is able to do is comfort his little boy, (who is yet another victim of the Tory austerity programme), on the occasions his ex allows him to see him. It is so sad.
legal aid is a must for those marginalized in society. cab are no way the correct people to go to in law the only redress is from a solicitor/lawyer as they are the only people in law who a judge can speak with
if legal aid was available those that have died in going through welfare reform would still be alive and that’s the difference law makes
I recall watching a documentary some while ago where a judge was making the case that self representation and the extra time it takes in court was probably costing more than was being saved.
legal aid for those who genuinely cannot afford legal help and make sure those well heeled scroungers who plead poverty or divert their assets do not end up taking the highest majority of the pot…..as they were doing and probably helped kill the original scheme.
Very obviously you don’t comprehend it is the people who really do need legal aid who are being denied it.
At last, the opposition behaving like The Opposition, as a force to provide detailed, factual (damning) evidence about the govt policies. This has been MIA for so long this action (like so much) seems novel.
Access to justice has been obliterated, including tribunals, FoI, as well as family division, and with the Compulsory Court Fees, and the Trade Union Laws, and later this year the laws gagging opposition and the Mail starting the Osborne PM campaign, it is a frightening prospect. The MSM are co-conspirators. Only RT was reporting on the Sweets Way evictions. We need Corbyns Labour more than ever.
our CAB actually has a volunteer solicitor , from one of the many solicitors firms in the town… such a shame so many law centres, unemployed workers centres and housing aids etc have been closed thanks to the govt making it impossible for them to get the funding they so badly needed to keep going. unemployed workers centres/law centres deal/dealt with unemployment law,benefits, housing, debt. ill n disabled financial problems and used to go to tribunals with clients. often winning their cases for them/i used to work in one down south. they kept up to date with all that by doing courses on different subjects within their remit. which was pretty extensive. they had clout back then… now they are virtually non existent and not much clout anymore.still a few law centres about but think they are finding it very difficult to advise clients. things are changing so fast.
This should of been done ages ago, is about bloody time!
I was watching the opening episode of the BBC’s 1978 futuristic serial “Blake’s 7”.
Viewers at the time, many of whom would have fought for freedom in two world wars and been aware of what life was like in the surveillance society of Soviet Russia, would have been suitably repelled and shocked by this depiction of life in a totalitarian future Britain. Predictably, the freedom fighter Blake is shafted by the legal system and his government-appointed token lawyer, who is only there to keep the system looking good.
As I watched I was nodding at the familiarity of it all – because it’s the Britain we are all living in now – at least anyone who has ever found themselves at the mercy of the DWP, local councils, or any other public institution that gets its claws into the vulnerable to rip their lives to pieces.
The worst of it is that most hard working Daily Mail readers today would just not grok Blake, or his grievances with the system. Just make sure you have a well-paid job, never, never, never get old or sick, and ALWAYS go along to get along.