Human Rights: attitudes to enforcement

Nicola Mackintosh QC (Hon) gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights. A link to the actual evidence transcript can be found below.

Attitudes to enforcement

Social mobility in a time of austerity

This week Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) will publish its third report on social mobility in the legal aid sector.

LASPO has profoundly affected social mobility in the sector and Legal aid law firms and other organisations are struggling to survive. The report sets out a series of recommendations to address some of the issues and can be read here:

YLAL – Social mobility report

‘Legal advice gateway to nowhere’

Nicola Mackintosh QC (Hon) has been referenced in the Law Gazette article ‘Legal advice gateway to nowhere’ which discusses the possible reasons behind the MOJ’s decision to cancel a procurement process to provide certain services through its legal advice telephone helpline.

Solicitor Nicola Mackintosh QC (Hon) told the Bach Commission that in the disability sphere, every client she represents (usually via the Official Solicitor as their litigation friend) has different levels of need and ability to communicate. She said: ‘What is absolutely crucial in mental capacity law is that the odd nuances in a person’s presentation are picked up by the legal advisers. This is why, while a telephone advice system will work very well as one of the tools for different areas of law or initial advice, it does not work for this particular client group where face-to-face advice is needed, because it’s also us assessing the client.’ There is a link to the full article below.

Law Gazette – News focus