Motion for Trade Unions to Show Support for Legal Aid

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The motion below, which can be downloaded here in Word (docx) form, is intended as a model motion for trade unions who want to show their support to the fight to save Legal Aid.

This organisation believes:

1. Legal aid, which celebrated its 60th birthday recently was a major concession won in the post-war consensus years. This major reform was won by the working class hand in hand with the trade union movement and the Labour Party.

2. Legal aid helped to secure rights and court representation in relation to eviction, welfare and the threat of unjust convictions. It leveled the playing field between the richest who could afford lawyers and the poorest who could not.

3. At the time of its launch, eight out of 10 people were entitled to the scheme’s assistance. The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice reveal fewer than one in three are now eligible.

4. On 1 April 2013, the cuts in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 came into force. There is no longer legal aid for advice or representation in welfare benefits, employment, family cases (where there is no domestic violence), immigration cases and consumer rights.

5. On 9 April 2013 the government announced a consultation on further legal aid cuts: “Transforming legal aid”. The Government intends to cut a further 17.5% from the criminal defence budget and proposes to introduce a tendering system for large scale regional contracts in relation to duty solicitor work. If these proposals are implemented, we believe that the quality of legal aid services will fall dramatically and there will be an increased risk of miscarriages of justice that could lead to innocent people being convicted of crimes that they did not commit.

6. In addition, further cuts to civil legal aid rates mean that there will no longer be specialist legal aid lawyers providing advice and representation in areas of housing law, education, for people asserting their rights against the state or other civil cases.

7. The legal aid budget only represents only 0.545% of national public spending (or £2.2 billion - the approximate cost of keeping the NHS running for 2 weeks).  Legal aid is provided at a very low cost to the public purse but has the potential to provide access to justice to a great many, most often those most in need.

8. Legal aid should be viewed as part of the wider trade union campaign to defend public services and the welfare state.

This organisation agrees to:

1. Campaign for the defence of legal aid.

2. Support calls for legal aid to be recognised as part of the welfare state.

3. Support publicity efforts including: demands to campaign for the defence of legal aid and for legal aid rates to be restored to pre-1979 levels; and publicising advice and representation on employment law issues, as a stepping stone to a fully funded legal aid system.

4. Affiliate to The Justice Alliance - an alliance of legal organisations, charities, community groups, campaigning groups, trade unions and individuals who are united in the opposition to the Government's proposed attack on legal aid and the criminal justice system[1].

5. Register our support for those in the legal profession taking direct action, including strike action.

[1] To affiliate please contact Justice Alliance organiser Russell Fraser: russell.fraser@me.com

Motions passed at Haldane AGM - 14 November 2013

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Motion opposing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement

Haldane strongly opposes the EU/ US free trade agreement, otherwise known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement (TTIP) - the purpose of which is to further entrench the power of capital and corporate rights at the expense of everything else - social, environmental and labour standards.

 

Motion regarding devastation and human catastrophe unfolding in the Phillipines 

Haldane AGM notes:

(i) the devastating and urgent human catastrophe in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Haiyan;

(ii) the need for an effective humanitarian response that will alleviate suffering in the immediate future and further when the passing interest of the world’s media moves on;

(iii) the specific request for financial support by Haldane’s comrades in the Philippines, several of whom visited London in February 2012 as part of the DHRD conference and with whom we have developed strong links and offered solidarity in their struggle  for social and economic rights.

Resolves:

(i) To facilitate a collection at the conclusion of the AGM with any monies raised being sent with a donation of £100 already agreed by the Haldane Executive earlier this week.

Haldane Society Winter Party 2013

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Advance tickets have now sold out but plenty will still be available on the door for the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers Winter Party!

The party will be held at Garden Court Chambers on 5 December 2013 from 6.30 pm. (Click here for directions.)

Tickets are £10 full priced or £8 students / unwaged / low-waged (£12 full priced or £10 students / unwaged / low-waged on the door).

Food and drink are included in the ticket price.

Members and non-members alike are welcome.

Tickets were sold online up to around midnight the night before the party.  Tickets can be purchased at full price of £12/£10 on the door.

Click here to download the flyer (PDF).

Haldane Society Stands in Solidarity with Persecuted Turkish Advocate

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Liz Davies, Chair of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, has sent a letter to the President of Turkey expressing our strong concerns regarding the treatment of Advocate Ramazan Demir.

Adv. Demir has been summoned to appear before the special prosecutor of the 15th Criminal Court in Silivri in relation to a statement he made in the course of his duties as counsel in court on 16 November 2012. No complaint was made by either the judge or the prosecutor at the time he made the statement, however, six months later, on 13 May 2013, the prosecutor placed him under formal investigation, alleging a violation of article 125 of the Turkish Criminal Code, namely “offending the dignity of a public authority in the performance of its duties”.

The alleged statement was made in what is known as the “KCK Press Trial” in which 44 journalists stand accused in Silivri. Adv. Demir on behalf of his client requested that an expert witness should be appointed. He stated the self-evident fact that it is not open to a prosecutor to simply assert that journalists lacked “independence” or behaved in any way inappropriate to their profession. Such an allegation must be proved by expert evidence on issues such as journalistic ethics and the international human rights guarantees of freedom of expression.

On the basis of his request, we understand that Adv. Demir now faces prosecution for an offence of “insulting or offending the dignity of a public authority in the performance of his duties.”

We will be bringing these matters to the attention of the appropriate United Nations Special Rapporteurs and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. We will continue to monitor any further attempts to undermine the abilities of Adv. Demir and his professional colleagues to provide the professional representation to their clients and international standards of human rights require.

Download the full letter (PDF).

Haldane Society Welcomes Criminal Bar Association's Call for Direct Action

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The Criminal Bar Association held a national delegates conference at Lincoln’s Inn on Saturday 16 November. The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers welcomes the Criminal Bar Association's determination to oppose Government's cuts to legal aid. We look forward to the calling of a day of action in protest in accordance with the resolution proposed by Mark George QC and Haldane Secretary Russell Fraser and passed unanimously. We will call on our members to support the Day of Action.

The Conference approved the following text:

The calling of a day or days of action on which no members of the criminal bar will undertake work in either the magistrates or crown courts. We will ask for the support of the representative bodies of the solicitor’s profession in standing by us on that (those) day (s). The purpose will be to demand that the government stays all its current proposals for legal aid and that the justice secretary engages with us meaningfully.

Call for Aid to Comrades in the Philippines

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Haldane calls on our members to assist Karapatan, a radical grassroots political organisation in the Philippines with which we have fraternal relations.  If you would like to donate to assist Karapatan please contact treasurer@haldane.org.

The Executive and AGM have already agreed to send a donation to assist Karapatan's urgent action appeal, and this was added to by a collection at our recent AGM. 

Any assistance will be gratefully received.

[The image in this article details and gives a pictorial representation of the various items which Karapatan can use to assist victims of the devastation in the Philippines.]

Free Lectures for November and December

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Download the original flyer (PDF).

[The embedded file in this article announces the upcoming lectures:

14 November 2013 speaker Phil Shiner, on UK Human Rights Violations in Iraq and Afghanistan (followed by AGM);

10 December 2013 speakers Elizabeth Woodcraft and Alison Diduck, on How to be a Feminist Lawyer.

All lectures 6.30pm, University of Law.]