Our profession may not survive the government's latest assault on legal aid. We must fight together in one united campaign to prevent Grayling's destruction of the rule of law.
Download the Join or Die leaflet.
Visit out Legal Aid Resource Centre to download the latest leaflets and posters in the campaign, or contact the Secretaries of the Society for hard copies.
Haldane Student Society of Socialist Lawyers invite all students to a friendly debate to be held on the impact of the legal aid cuts and the future for lawyers committed to social justice.
Speakers:
Michael Goold, Criminal Barrister, Garden Court Chambers; Vice-Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers;
Ruth Hayes, Director of Islington Law Centre, Co-Vice Chair of the Law Centres Network and Justice Alliance.
JUSTICE ALLIANCE FILM: There will be a screening of the Justice Alliance film about the impact of the legal aid cuts. Featuring Stephen Fry, Tamsin Greig and Jo Brand.
11 February 2015 at 6.30pm to 8.00pm at Room SG01, Store Street, University of Law – Bloomsbury, Store Street, London.
The following article first appeared on Magna Carta 800 Years and is reproduced with kind permission of its authors.
From 21 February 2015, Students for Legal Aid are calling on students from across the UK to protest against the Global Law Summit, an event hosted by the Government to celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta.
The hypocrisy of commemorating the birth of the rule of law with a networking opportunity for international businessmen – dubbed the ‘Davos of law’ – while at the same time decimating access to justice for ordinary people, cannot pass unchallenged. For that reason, Justice Alliance UK – a coalition of legal organisations, charities, community groups, trade unions and individuals –is planning a series of events to coincide with the Summit:
The Haldane Society has responded to Justice's consultation on "Delivering Civil Justice in an Age of Austerity".
Whilst we understand that the purpose of the working party’s consultation is to find cheaper ways of delivering justice, we do not agree with the current prevailing economic philosophy that severe cuts in public services need to be made. We continue to argue that legal aid should be expanded, not cut. When the legal aid scheme was first introduced, in 1949, around 80% of the population was financially eligible for legal aid in comparison with less than a third today. We believe that financial eligibility should return to the levels that it was in 1949. The costs of this could be recouped through taxation.
At a time when Legal Aid is being destroyed by the government, the Haldane Society has unearthed a report prepared by the Society in 1948, on the Legal Aid Bill then going through Parliament.
Please see below a petition - please email Sam Parham at Garden Court Chambers samp@gclaw.co.uk or contact Sam on twitter @sam_parham if you are a barrister practising in criminal law and would like to be added as a signatory.
PETITION:
'Response to the CBA announcement of 27.3.2014-
NOT IN OUR NAME
‘Divide and rule’ between the professions is not applied in our name.
As individuals, we believe in the highest quality representation for our clients and in unity of action between the professions. It is only through this united stance that we have been able to come this far and unity remains essential to the preservation of this profession and to the protection of justice.
The breaking of unprecedented unity is not in our name.
Cuts, be they deferred, are not in our name.
Cuts heavily weighted upon solicitors rather than barristers are not in our name. The cuts already imposed are devastating and crippling to all.
We also provide support to solicitors and to the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) in their protest action on the 31st March and 1st April 2014.
We further pledge our support to the march from Old Palace Yard, SW1 to the MOJ Headquarters on 1st April from 14:15 (Mr Grayling’s Birthday).
The Haldane Society condemns the decision of the CBA, without reference to its members, to purport to suspend the industrial action taken by criminal barristers against the government's attacks on legal aid. Criminal barristers within the Haldane Society take the view that it is not for the leadership of the CBA to tell our profession whether or not we will take action in solidarity with our comrades in the solicitors profession, and within the civil bar. If there is to be any suspension of further action, it should be a decision of the members of the profession taken at a general meeting at which all are free to attend, so that the matter can be discussed openly.
The concessions offered by Grayling are pitiful in comparison to what we stand to gain by remaining united. Simply delaying the introduction of certain cuts to barristers' fees is insufficient. We demand the end to all government cuts to legal aid. This is achievable. Mere days ago Grayling described the cuts as being written in stone. Now they are up for negotiation. Further action will compel him to compromise further. We can defeat these cuts. All we need is solidarity.
Ending this struggle merely because some of our fees are secure plays into the hands of those who would call us fat cats. This struggle has never merely been about our fees. It is about access to justice. This is still under threat from the Grayling cuts. Our job is to serve the communities for whose rights we fight. This retreat by the CBA is letting the public down. Our clients' fights for justice don't stop at the criminal bar: their access to justice will be impeded without solicitors to help them through the gateway to justice, and without civil practitioners to obtain remedies for injustices done, and to challenge unlawful government decisions. To truly win, we must stand firm, in solidarity with comrades throughout the legal profession and beyond.
The Haldane Society continues to support the action to be taken on 31 March and 1 April by the solicitors profession and probation workers. We also continue to support any and all action against the cuts, including further withdrawal of labour by barristers.
The fight continues. If the CBA will not lead it, then someone else will.
Thousands of lawyers struck on Friday against the government's devastating cuts to the justice system.
Demonstrations took place in cities across the country against the government's plans to slash funding for criminal cases, reduce the number of people eligible for legal aid, and prevent oversight of government action by restricting judicial review.
Haldane members took a prominent role in organising the demonstrations and strikes.
The Haldane Society is now calling for a protracted campaign of strike days involving the withdrawal of our services from the criminal justice system until the government abandons their plans.
