Legal Funding Disadvantages

Before 1906, when the Liberals were in power, Britain was not a welfare state. This meant that if you were in poverty you had you help yourself, ask family/neighbours/friends/charities to help instead of the government. The Governments attitude to poverty was ‘Laissez Faire’ – Leaving things alone. They said that if you were poor, it was your own fault and it was up to you to get yourself out of poverty. The Liberals wanted to fix this by introducing acts to help worker, the old and young, the unemployed and sick. The Liberal Government of 1906-1914 introduced social reform due to the survey of Booth and Rowntree to a certain extent. However factors such as National Security, National Efficiency, Political Self-interest, New Liberalism and Municipal Socialism were also all important.

This issue, and the injustice surrounding it, was first made evident in the case of Dietrich v the Queen, the high court recognised the need for adequate legal representation. In an attempt to redress inequalities of access to the legal system, the Australian Government enacted the Commonwealth Legal Aid Commission Act 1977, which established cooperative arrangements between the Australian Government and state and territory governments, under which legal aid would be provided by independent legal aid commissions, to be established under state and territory legislation. However, Legal aid is not offered to everyone. In order to qualify for legal aid individuals must pass means (level of income or assets) and merit (matter is serious enough and likely to win) tests. This establishes justice and equality for defendants of low socioeconomic status, upholding procedural

Undoubtedly, the use of unpaid lay justices is cheap, not only because they are unpaid but also the cost of the trial itself is much less expensive than in the Crown Court. In 1999, the Home Office Research and Planning Unit estimated the average cost of a contested trial in the Magistrates’ Court at £1,500 and a guilty plea at £500. The comparative figures for the Crown Court were £13,500 and £2,500 respectively. However, part of this difference is due to the fact that cases in the Crown Court are more complex and therefore likely to take longer; but even so, it is clear that the cost both to the Government and to defendants who pay for their own lawyer is much higher in the Crown Court.

This paper aims to explore the Legal Services Act 2007 and the impact the Act has had on the role of a Costs Lawyer since implementation.

During the Victorians period, around 1800, poor people were taking care by buying food and cloths thanks to money collected from land owners and wealthy people. But when the Poor Law Amendment Act were proclaimed in 1834, everything changed. The Poor Law mentioned that no poor people could get help unless they went to live in special workhouses. The idea behind workhouses was that poor people were helped and that they eventually supported themselves by working in there.

In the 16th century the Welfare State was non-existent in Britain. The result of this was the increase in people subjected to living in absolute poverty due to them not having the basic living requirements. They also had no access to services such as health care, or education as these were not free institutions. The ruling era of Queen Elizabeth I identified that the paupers required some form of help and as a result introduced the ‘Act for the Relief of the Poor’ in 1601.

In his report Lord Jackson stated, “The legal aid system plays a crucial role in promoting access to justice at proportionate costs in key areas”. Since April 2013 when LASPO became law there has been a reduction in the categories for which civil legal aid is available and a narrowing of the means-test criteria. This means that fewer people qualify for legal

Carol Smith has spent years looking into hospital negligence compensation, personal injury solicitor’s cases and other forms of mistreatment and poor service in the healthcare setting for a team of solicitors in

The welfare system of the United States began when the colonies adopted the British Poor Laws. The British Poor laws made a distinction between those who were able bodied and could work and those who could not work, due to age, health or disability. Those who were able to work were given public service employment in work houses and those who could not work were provided with assistance, which included money or other forms of assistance. (Moffitt, 2015)

Legal aid was used to finance those who could not afford to bring a case to court The government should conduct an urgent review of the impact of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act, which came into effect in 2013 and has severely restricted funding, the study says. A review has been promised within three to five years but ministers have delayed. The year before the act was introduced, legal aid was granted in 925,000 cases, Amnesty points out. The year after, assistance was given in 497,000 cases, a drop of 46%. This means that victims of domestic violence, those who have been wrongly

Justice is at the heart of a democratic society. It means laws should apply equally to all, and that everyone should have the right to a fair trial. It is part of our rights as human beings and we ought to be able to bring our dispute before an independent judge for them to be settled. This essay seeks to look at the availability of legal aid in the 21st century and if it is still “open to all, like the ritz hotel” like suggested by Sir James Mathew.

Discussion The issue of legal representation or lack thereof, as was demonstrated in the results, differs from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research 2010 findings that 59.7% of persons charged in NSW Local Courts had legal representation. Despite this significant difference in statistical measurement, 9.7%, case by case observation revealed that all three of the cases without legal representation entered guilty pleas. Hence illustrating the implications of Dietrich v The Queen (1992) in that in Australia there is “no right to legal representation at

The welfare state in Britain began when the Labour Party come into power in 1945. Their aim was to introduce a organised system that would begin to tackle the existing poverty situation that was based on the Poor Law Acts. The government recognised and acknowledged the need for these changes and reducing the inequalities that existed via the social classes and counties. These differences included the levels of unemployment, availability to public health services and workers that were covered by occupational insurance. Servant William Beveridge shaped the principles and development of the welfare state. Adam Smith argued and rebelled against the welfare state principles under the conservative government. Smith argued that individuals control

Almost all the funding to legal aid comes from public expenditure funds allocated by the Ministry of Finance in the United Kingdom, in view of the fact that the UK government keep the faith of that it is the government’s responsibility to supply legal assistance to the financially difficult citizens. Besides, donation from the society is also an essential way of collecting funds. It is due to the fact that legal aid is a social entrepreneurship in the UK and most people have chosen to do their part through donations. In addition, if a client’s property is within the limits that set by law, then the client will be required to donate the legal amount of money or property as a condition of receiving legal aid.

Question 1 (a): Outline in your own words the key, PRE-IFRS, developmental factors that can differ across countries (e.g. different sources of finance and different legal systems). In your answer, summarise the differences and any similarities between the development factors of China and Australia.