House of Lords debate legal aid

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2009-06-23a.1453.0
It would be wrong for me to suggest that those speaking in the debate don't understand why legal aid is essential or why legal aid should not be the runt of the Social Welfare litter. However I can't help thinking that they don't. All Lord Bach seems worried about is the fact that The Treasury and the Prime Minister have told him "there is no more money". He and his predecessors just accept that and then try to make a litre of need fit into a pint pot.

Why is there an increased demand on legal aid? Legal aid spending is client led. One cannot get paid unless one has a legal aid client. Getting legal aid is not easy. So why do so many qualify? Where has the increase been?
http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/speech110609a.htm/

The main problem is that the Government, Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Commission have decided that the only answer is to cut, cut, cut. Cut the numbers of lawyers doing the work and cut the spending on it. At the same time they introduced Call Centres and so called one stop shops to provide legal advice. They refer to this as "acts of assistance" as if helping people is enough. It is resolving issues that counts and allowing people to access good quality lawyers so they get good quality advice.

There are alternatives
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/newsandevents/news/view=newsarticle.law?NEWSID=421075/

The latest crazy idea is BVT. It just does not make sense. No-one believes it will work or deliver what the Government, Ministry of Justice or Legal Services commission wants from it. It is a mish-mash of biz-speak, experiment and utter nonsense. http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/bestvaluetendering

Helen Taylor, by any other name, is still a lawyer

Helen Taylor is now known as Helen Martin. This happened a few months ago when she got married.
Some professional women, like Jacqueline Emmerson, keep their maiden name for professional purposes. Jacqueline is known as Mrs Robinson at home.

New Conveyancer

John Coulter is employed by emmersons as a conveyancing Solicitor. We believe that clients should be advised by and have their case conducted by a Solicitor. Other firms and organisations believe that unqualified staff can do the work just as well and so charge lower fees. It all depends what you are after. If you pay a low fee then you are risking quite a lot more than the money you have saved.

You are what matters to us. You may wish to sell a house and move to a new home because you are getting married or starting a family. You may have separated or recently divorced and its time to start over. You may wish to retire and buy your dream home. You may wish to buy a child a home whilst they study at University (what about rental agreements, tax) and then sell it after 3 years.

Maybe you're starting a business and you wish to lease premises or your business is expanding and you require bigger premises.

Whatever the reason you have, our aim is to help you fulfill your dream.

Launch Party

We hope to hold a Launch party on 6 October 2009 at Opus Gallery http://www.opus-art.com on West Avenue Gosforth to celebrate the opening of our Gosforth office.

The theme for our Launch party will be "A Tribute to HM Forces" and we hope to raise lots of money for SSAFA http://www.ssafa.org.uk Our intention is to invite representatives from local businesses who have served or who have sons or daughters who are serving to our Launch party. Each representative of each business will hopefully bring a cheque to donate to SSAFA.