Legal Aid

There should be a "legal aid audit" when any new legislation is passed, the head of legal rights group FLAC has said.

A new report from the International Bar Association (IBA) Access to Justice and Legal Aid Committee and the World Bank claims that improving legal aid services is as important for economic growth as providing functioning hospitals, schools and roads. The report, A Tool for Justice: A Cost Benefit An

Expanding the scope of legal aid is a better way of increasing access to justice than promoting greater uptake of legal expenses insurance, the chair of the Bar Council of Northern Ireland has said. Bar Chair Sarah Ramsey spoke at the launch of a new report on legal expenses insurance and access to

Civil legal aid should be widened to include areas of the law such as housing and homelessness, the Chief Justice of Ireland, Mr Frank Clarke, has said. Ireland's top judge made the remarks at the launch of the Mercy Law Resource Centre's 2018 annual report, which was streamed live over the internet

The impact of savage cuts in civil legal aid since 2012 has been so devastating that the UK’s most senior judge yesterday felt it necessary to broadcast an appeal for a legal charity. “I know how intimidating the civil and family courts can be for people without legal knowledge of help,&

The Bar of Ireland will more closely monitor the level of unpaid fees owed to junior barristers under the "antiquated" District Court legal aid scheme following a unanimous decision of the Bar AGM. Under a revised Code of Conduct, barristers will be required to submit details of outstanding fees owe

Victims of discrimination in England and Wales are being denied their fundamental right to justice and perpetrators are going unchallenged because of failures in the legal aid system, the human rights watchdog has warned. An inquiry into legal aid for victims of discrimination by the Equality and Hu

Lord Neuberger has warned that further cuts in the justice system will lead to a “breakdown of the rule of law”, The Times reports. The former president of the UK Supreme Court said the rule of law was “absolutely fundamental” but had been taken for granted in the UK followin

Declining access to legal aid in England and Wales has been highlighted in a United Nations report on the UK, which describes the budget as having been "decimated". Legal aid has been dramatically reduced in England and Wales since 2012. The LASPO Act (Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offende

The Department of Justice has announced the appointment of 12 lawyers to the Civil Legal Services Appeals Panels, which considers appeals regarding the granting of legal aid in civil cases. Ciaran Harvey, Jim Kitson, Charles Redpath and Htaik Win have been appointed as presiding members.

Swingeing cuts to legal aid have had a devastating effect on parts of Wales, with some towns having no law centres or legal aid lawyers, The Guardian reports. Before the introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (Laspo) in 2013, legal aid would have accounted for 40 p

President Michael D. Higgins yesterday warned that barriers to access to justice in Ireland are damaging "the very fabric of our society, entrenching and exacerbating inequality". The president mounted a strong defence of legal aid in his speech at the officially opening of legal rights group FLAC's

Two Irish lawyers earned more than €650,000 through the criminal legal aid scheme in 2018, according to new Department of Justice figures. Barrister Michael Bowman SC, who also topped the legal aid table in 2017 with €566,156, earned €656,198 in 2018.