This book considers how access to justice is affected by restrictions to legal aid budgets and increasingly prescriptive service guidelines. As common law jurisdictions, England and Wales and Australia, share similar ideals, policies and practices, but they differ in aspects of their legal and political culture, in the nature of the communities they serve and in their approaches to providing access to justice. These jurisdictions thus provide us with different perspectives on what constitutes justice and how we might seek to overcome the burgeoning crisis in unmet legal need.
The book fills an important gap in existing scholarship as the first to bring together new empirical and theoretical knowledge examining different responses to legal aid crises both in the domestic and comparative contexts, across criminal, civil and family law. It achieves this by examining the broader social, political, legal, health and welfare impacts of legal aid cuts and prescriptive service guidelines. Across both jurisdictions, this work suggests that it is the most vulnerable groups who lose out in the way the law now operates in the twenty-first century. This book is essential reading for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers interested in criminal and civil justice, access to justice, the provision of legal assistance and legal aid.
Edited by:
Dr Asher Flynn,
Professor Jacqueline Hodgson
Imprint: Hart Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 30mm
Weight: 644g
ISBN: 9781509900848
ISBN 10: 1509900845
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 26 January 2017
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
A / AS level
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Access to Justice and Legal Aid Cuts: A Mismatch of Concepts in the Contemporary Australian and British Legal Landscapes Asher Flynn and Jacqueline Hodgson 2. Challenges Facing the Australian Legal Aid System Mary Anne Noone 3. Rhyme and Reason in the Uncertain Development of Legal Aid in Australia Jeff Giddings 4. The Rise and Decline of Criminal Legal Aid in England and Wales Tom Smith and Ed Cape 5. A View from the Bench: A Judicial Perspective on Legal Representation, Court Excellence and Therapeutic Jurisprudence Pauline Spencer 6. Face-to-interface Communication: Accessing Justice by Video Link from Prison Carolyn McKay 7. The Rise of ‘DIY’ Law: Implications for Legal Aid Kathy Laster and Ryan Kornhauser 8. Community Lawyers, Law Reform and Systemic Change: Is the End in Sight? Liana Buchanan 9. What if There Is Nowhere to Get Advice? James Organ and Jennifer Sigafoos 10. The End of ‘Tea and Sympathy’? The Changing Role of Voluntary Advice Services in Enabling ‘Access to Justice’ Samuel Kirwan 11. Reasoning a Human Right to Legal Aid Simon Rice 12. Cuts to Civil Legal Aid and the Identity Crisis in Lawyering: Lessons from the Experience of England and Wales Natalie Byrom 13. Access to What? LASPO and Mediation Rosemary Hunter, Anne Barlow, Janet Smithson and Jan Ewing 14. Insights into Inequality: Women’s Access to Legal Aid in Victoria Pasanna Mutha-Merennege 15. Indigenous People and Access to Justice in Civil and Family Law Melanie Schwartz 16. Austerity and Justice in the Age of Migration Ana Aliverti
Asher Flynn is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology within the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Jacqueline Hodgson is Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal Justice Centre in the School of Law, University of Warwick.
Reviews for Access to Justice and Legal Aid: Comparative Perspectives on Unmet Legal Need
The book provides a sound introduction to the challenges of the Australian and UK legal aid sectors. Innovators will see within the essays opportunities for innovations to ameliorate the otherwise harsh consequences of systemic changes driven by funding cuts, rather than client needs. -- Katie Miller, executive director, Legal Practice, Victoria Legal Aid Law Institute Journal
