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31 January 2019 / Patrick Allen
Issue: 7826 / Categories: Features , Legal aid focus
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Book review: Legal Aid Handbook 2018/19

  • Editors: Vicky Ling, Simon Pugh & Sue James
  • Publisher: Legal Action Group
  • ISBN: 978-1912273003 
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: £60

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

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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