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9 Comments
Perhaps a story on here on the devastation wrought on Legal Aid ??
I Very much doubt I will be renewing my membership now – despite being a member for approx 30 years, and being the ONLY Lib Dem Cllr in the whole of the Banbury Constituency.
Nick Cotter Solicitor, Crown Court Solicitor Advocate (Defence).
I sent you a link to an article earlierv this week, looking forward to getting a response.
>Perhaps a story on here on the devastation wrought on Legal Aid ??
Yes! Anyone that has been to a court in recent times is aware that our legal system is now strictly for those with money. If you’re fighting a case with no money now your odds are pretty terrible, and for many people they simply have no choice. The amount of children that have been deprived of their parents because of this must be astonishing, but I’m sure they’ve found a way to not collect that data. It’s not a justice system any more; you pay for justice and the amount you get will have some correlation to the amount you paid. Sickening.
>I Very much doubt I will be renewing my membership now – despite being a member for approx 30 years
You’re in good company here Nick! There’s a lot of us that post here that were members until this government; I’m sure many of them will become members again. What you’ve got to remember is that after 30 years you’re still a liberal at heart and no amount of Clegg/Cameron is going to change that, so sit tight and stay close because there’s a lot more of us than there are supporters of the current regime!
Gail, I don’t think it’s got to us, so could you please re-send.
Nick, I agree with you on Legal Aid. Do you want to write us something on what this means for people? I know that Lib Dems got some changes, but it’s nowhere near enough.
I know that everyone has their issues that they feel strongly about – for me it’s the appalling way we treat those who seek sanctuary here and the horrendous income levels for people wanting to bring their spouses here. But we are doing good stuff in there that nobody else would have done. That has to count for something.
Caron
If the changes made were nowhere near enough – WHY DID THE BILL GET PASSED?
Caron,
I will gladly put something together, but the changes have gone through and I am Ashamed to say with barely a whimper from our MP’s – Absolutely Disgraceful !!!
Anyway my only consolation in all of this is (as Chris B says ) I Remain a Liberal at heart – and once Clegg and Cameron are gone after the next G/E (if not before) !! Chris and 100’s like me will still be Here !! to continue fighting for a decent and just society, and I write as one born in 1963, before the birth of the two aforementioned !!!
Cllr Nick Cotter.
As a metric the number of comments per article is interesting. Quite often there are only a handful, or in the case of the Stonewall article only one comment at present. Getting over 20 comments per article is an achievement. Looking at the most read articles at present – the Shirley Williams article on a separate Scotland has 46 comments and the Andrew Rawnsley article on the Nick Clegg / Nigel Farage debate has 18 comments.
So what is going wrong? There are quite a few thousands of visitors to this website. Our party membership is around 40,000 so we should be seeing maybe 200,000 web visitors per week and dozens of comments on average per article, and hundreds on the more active articles. Something is not right here. Has anybody any suggestions for why our members are not making much use of this excellent resource?
The law is no longer available even to those on reasonable incomes because costs are simply astronomical as I discovered when I needed to evict a non paying tenant. The costs must simply be brought down. There may be poor solicitors but most of those I see lead lavish life styles and they are not going to stop doing so until it is forced upon them. Simple procedures like preparing leases which are in standard form cost thousands and then you have to pay more for the lawyers to correct their own mistakes although you have had to do all the work yourself. You cannot rely on them to get even the most basic facts correct and have to spend hours checking their work. I spent most of my working life having to deal with lawyers and I was horrified at the general incompetence, ignorance and laziness of even the supposed leaders in the field. As for going to court – well unless you are a millionaire do not even think about it unless you want to be made bankrupt.
Law, Legal Aid. Courts. All very interensting, but what happened to Justice?
In the Employment Tribunals service, we have seen what was to have been a low cost, informal, common-snese system turned into a lawyers field sport. We manage disappointment, for one or other of those involved will be disappointed. We see, over half of awards of compensation not paid, and effectively ignored. We see unrepresented claimants, and now defendents, overwhelmelmed by monied opponents. Now costs for claimants. other than people such as the disabled, exceed the value of the slaim (if won, and paid) especially for the low paid who want their unpaid holiday,
redundancy, or even wages recovered from unscrupulous employers. We see unrepresented disabled, claimants and defendents (typically those in reciept of direct payments, and now “employers”) being chased by former care or personal assistants ( on pittiful wages) where the poor seek justice from the impoverished – and can do nothing.
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Employment Judges, sitting without 2 lay mambers in support, now deal wth most cases on a conveyor belt and lack the shared wisdon and experieince of lay members who have been in business, or worked at the front line, to add value the the professional barrister or lawyers ,often monoscopic experience of real employment issues and experience..
Many Liberal Democrats serve, or have served, on tribunals ( not just Employment, but Immigration Appeals, Medical, and Benefits, and the abolished Standards in Local Government ) and I am one. When were any of us contacted or asked about the coal face of Justice?