Fighting cuts is not enough. Geoffrey Bindman QC sets a challenge for the new Lord Chancellor
The report by a Justice working party, “Delivering Justice in an Age of Austerity”, published on 23 April, brought together a varied group of lawyers, including myself, under the chairmanship of the retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Stanley Burnton. The context for the project was the decline in government support for the rule of law not only by cutting legal aid but by cutting funding for the administration of the courts and restricting access to them by imposing prohibitive fees on litigants.
When I was asked to join the working party I hesitated. I feared that the premise of “austerity” would lead to compromises and the sacrifice of fundamental principle in the effort to make the best of an inadequately funded judicial system. I was disinclined to help the government to avoid the consequences of its ill-considered policies.
I soon found that other members of the working party were as much opposed
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