DPAC: In a Nutshell: Next round of Legal Aid Amendments explained - Act Now to Save Legal Aid!

In a Nutshell: next round of legal aid amendments explained – act now to save legal aid! Posted: 15 Apr 2012 01:27 PM PDT with many thanks to nick @Mylegalforum for letting us  repost see Mylegalforum for more Here’s how Clarke’s proposals will affect many lives if the  Government gets its way this Tuesday – you can kiss goodbye  to legal aid for all this.. Clarke is opposing… (1)   A clearer definition of his functions (1) (2)   Access to legal services for domestic violence victims (2) (3)   A better definition of the distinction between him and his director         of legal services, but he is putting forward a counter-proposal for         individual cases, which he proposes imposes ‘independence’ (3 &         4 replaced) (4)   Any legal help for welfare benefit work, up to first–tier tribunal         level (168) (5)   Has made a concession on welfare benefits in the upper tribunal         & higher courts, which needs to be treated with some degree of         caution until its full legal effect is known (169 & 240) (6)   Experts report in clinical negligence cases (170) (7)   Face to face advice – he wants the telephone gateway (24 ) (8)   Exceptions in respiratory /industrial disease or illness cases (31) (9)   Exceptions in Industrial disease cases where breach of duty by         employer (32) (10) Access to a legal services for a wider number of children (171) (11) Access to legal services in clinical negligence cases in instances         which took place when the victim was a child (172) Nor is he giving much on domestic violence provisions with  the additional opposition of amendments 192 to 196 (excluding  195). In summary – he’s gone against the Lords on almost everything,  with some tinkering to suit his government’s aims, & a meaningless  concession on Upper Tribunal & higher court work in welfare benefit  cases which is unlikely to benefit advice agencies, given the low  number of cases when the biggest problem they face, is helping clients  with the tsunami of benefits appeals at First Tier level – set to increase  to 644,000 appeals per year according to the Tribunal judiciary! Contact your MP – there are many links to different ways of doing so on the  internet.  We’ve put one here… http://mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?a….643&page=1#1503 YOU NEED TO ACT TODAY – TIME IS NOT ON OUR SIDE! Read more: http://mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=frontline&thread=646&page= 1#1513#ixzz1s8s0SPOI