Legal Aid and Judicial Review – A Community Law Partnership (CLP) Discussion Paper

Shortly before the General Election the Government introduced new regulations restricting the availability of legal aid in judicial review cases. Given that we now have a Conservative majority government, it seems that these regulations will remain in place. These regulations may have severely detrimental effects on Gypsies and Travellers and CLP believe these regulations are highly challengeable. If you want to discuss this matter or if you are a Gypsy or Traveller who wants to challenge these regulations please telephone us on our advice line, 0121 685 8677.

Everyone had been waiting with trepidation for the Government’s response to the Travellers and Planning Consultation.  You can find examples of some of the wonderful consultation responses in our article “Re-Defining Travellers Out of Existence” on our website under: campaigns and consultations

After lobbying from Dr Angus Murdoch, a Planning Consultant who acts for Gypsies and Travellers, the Liberal Democrat MP, David Laws, studied all of the consultation responses and was very concerned about the points that were made in those responses.  Accordingly the Liberal Democrats blocked the attempt of Mr Pickles, the Secretary of State for Justice, to bring in changes to planning policies including the proposed change to the definition of “Gypsy” for the purposes of planning.  This is excellent news. Well done to Angus, David Laws, Lord Avebury (who facilitated this process) and all of those who put in consultation responses.  A report on this appeared in the Daily Telegraph and, interestingly, on the same page there was a report about thousands more homes being planned for the Green Belt.  You can read this at:- Daily Telegraph Report

Readers will recall that in the case of R(Moore & Coates) –v- Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Mr Justice Gilbart had quashed the decisions of the Secretary of State, Mr Pickles, to recover these Green Belt Gypsy and Traveller planning appeals.  Gilbart J found the process of recovery to be discriminatory and unlawful.

The above quote is the conclusion of the cross party Parliamentary Justice Committee in their report Impact of Changes to Civil Legal Aid under Part 1 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders’ Act 2012 published on 12 March 2015.

Harlow Council in combination with Essex County Council have obtained an injunction against Gypsies and Travellers covering 454 parcels of land:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11449118/Traveller-sites-banned-from-entire-town-as-High-Court-issues-unprecedented-injunction.html

Though TAT were contacted by two of the Defendants prior to the Order being made, unfortunately they were not eligible for legal aid and did not instruct us further.  TAT feel that such injunctions are highly challengeable and would be very interested in hearing from anyone affected by this injunction or any other such injunction.  Please telephone us on our Advice Line on 0121 685 8677.

The effect of the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 was that solicitors and counsel on a legal aid funded judicial review would receive no payment for the period between issue and permission unless permission was granted.

Williamson -v- Khan, Birmingham County Court 29th April 2015.

In a case which could not be brought today as a result of the restrictions to the scope of Legal Aid in April 2013, a vulnerable tenant has been awarded over £48,000 in damages and interest against her former landlord.

After the last disastrous 5 years of the Coalition Government which has seen vast areas of law taken out of scope for Legal Aid, restrictions on the ability of Legal Aid firms to take judicial review actions and a 10% across the board cut in Civil Legal Aid fees, it is vital that supporters of Legal Aid and Access to Justice use their vote in the upcoming General Election.

Enjoy this short film from the Legal Aid Team – in their words, it’s “An animated superhero adventure film pitting three audacious lawyers against the evil justice minister, Chris Grayling”.

http://www.legalaidteam.com

We have now received a totally unhelpful response from the Ministry of Justice to the Petition – see attached.