Legal Aid

Northern Ireland's Law Society and Bar Council have warned of a looming "catastrophe for access to justice" in a joint letter to the Northern Ireland secretary and the Northern Ireland affairs committee. The letter warns that Northern Ireland's justice system is already in a poor state, with a court

New legislation transferring responsibility for the criminal legal aid scheme to the Legal Aid Board will be drafted this summer under government plans published today. Justice Plan 2023, outlining over 140 actions to be taken by the government this year, was published today by justice minister Simo

Joan Crawford has been appointed as the new chief executive officer of the Legal Aid Board. The Legal Aid Board is the statutory, independent body responsible for the provision of civil legal aid and advice to people of modest means.

Criminal barristers are set to stage another protest over the level of fees paid to practitioners in the District Court.

Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell this morning opened a second two-day conference on access to justice, this time focusing on civil legal aid. We reproduce below the bulk of his opening address. Civil legal aid might indeed have been an obvious focus of the first conference of the Access to Justice Grou

A public consultation on reform of Ireland's civil legal aid system has been extended until the end of the month for further submissions. The consultation, which forms part of the independent review led by former chief justice Frank Clarke, began in December and was originally set to run until 3 Feb

Ireland's civil legal aid scheme should be expanded to cover more people and more areas of law and restructured in line with the community law centre model, a group of 19 legal and social justice organisations have said. In a joint submission to the government review of the scheme, the organisations

Reform of the civil legal aid scheme has moved into its second phase with the launch of a public consultation. The public consultation launched yesterday is in addition to the stakeholder consultation which launched in November and remains open until February. A further targeted consultation for har

Legal advice and legal representation should be provided to people struggling with consumer debt, legal rights group FLAC has said. The fourth and final paper in FLAC's "Pillar to Post" series on consumer debt issues is due to be published this evening.

The long-awaited review of Ireland's civil legal aid scheme has begun with the opening of a consultation for stakeholders. The consultation, which will run from today until Friday 6 January, marks the first part of a multi-phase consultation process aimed at capturing a broad range of views across s

Northern Ireland’s High Court has determined that it was unreasonable for an applicant to be denied legal aid, including the support of a senior counsel, for his asylum appeal where he was entitled to this during his original High Court case. This application involved a challenge to a decision

The Law Society of England and Wales's new president has said criminal lawyers should refuse work for which they are not properly remunerated as they demand a 15 per cent increase in legal aid fees, in line with barristers. Lubna Shuja's appointment comes as solicitors have been offered a nine per c

Criminal barristers in England and Wales are to end their indefinite strike later today after accepting the UK government's deal on legal aid fees. Fifty-seven per cent of barristers voted in a ballot to accept a 15 per cent pay rise, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) said.

There has been a "flight of solicitors" from the legal aid family law panel due to the poor rates paid for legal aid work, a leading family lawyer has said. Keith Walsh, who practises in Dublin, made the comments following the launch of the Legal Aid Board's annual report for 2021 yesterday.

Criminal barristers in England and Wales have agreed to vote on ending strike action following discussions with the UK's justice secretary, Brandon Lewis. The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) will re-ballot members following meetings with Mr Lewis and his decision to offer a package of further reforms