Book review: Legal Aid Handbook 2018/19

The Legal Aid Handbook is an essential item in the toolkit of any practitioner handling legal aid work. The latest edition is edited by Vicky Ling, Simon Pugh and Sue James, all of whom have extensive legal aid experience (Vicky Ling actually worked for the Legal Aid Board for some years in the 1990s). The handbook covers pretty much everything you would need to know about civil and criminal legal aid, cost claims and the policy framework in one volume.

Given the extensive cutbacks in legal aid scope and funding over the last few years you might think this would be a thin volume, but, of course, this is not the case. The legal aid which remains after the cuts still is bound by complex rules and statutory instruments and practitioners need to find their way through the minefield to conduct any case, even though remuneration is now derisory.

Indeed, I have on my bookshelf the 1997–98 Legal Aid