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11 May 2018 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7792 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Criminal
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#The Law Is Broken

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Jon Robins laments the state of a criminal justice system beset by legal aid cuts, unconscious bias & miscarriages of justice

As barristers return to man the metaphorical barricades to protest the latest round of legal aid cuts and the solicitors’ professional body gloomily predict ‘extinction’ for its ageing members (according to Law Society research, the average age of duty solicitors is 47 years), few lawyers would take issue with the oft-repeated assertion in the legal Twittersphere: #TheLawIsBroken.

Even senior judges are speaking out. Earlier this month, Lady Justice Hallett told The Guardian that the English justice system was hanging on to its reputation as the best in the world by its ‘fingernails’ and her boss, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett of Maldon, complained that under-investment in the court estate ‘amounted to neglect’.

Measure of contempt

Austerity has hit the criminal justice system hard. Towards the end of last year, it was revealed that by the end of the decade the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)’s budget will have been slashed by 40% since the coalition government came to power in

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