David Burrows reports from the legal aid family law barricades
On 1 May 2007 the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Select Committee published its report, Implementation of the Carter Review of Legal Aid, which the Law Society characterises as mirroring its own concerns and Resolution describes as “right on the money”.
By what criteria should the report be judged? Not first by the pocket of the lawyer. First must be the needs of the public, the people we advise and assist. We must be able to do so to a standard where clients are guaranteed a service of a good and, where need be, expert standard. But if that is not paid for then the lawyer will look elsewhere for his work: if you do not pay your dentist, builder, surgeon or plumber enough they won’t work for you. Reduce pay to subsistence levels and you get subsistence service; and your drains or your heart won’t work for long.
labour ideas
The story so far is that early in Tony Blair’s first term his former pupil master and then Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, promoted the
