Tag Archive for 'legal aid'

Random Fire 7

Published on 7 January 2008 in Random Fire. 17 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Geeklawyer has been busy today (rather than working he spent the afternoon watching “I am Legend’, the ho-hum OK-ish remake of the impeccable 1972 Omega Man with Charlton Heston) so he doesn’t have much time to rattle off sweary posts and biting invective. But, here are some things that caught his attention:

1) Geeklawyer was off getting hammered in Bavaria and so unable to vote for or promote WAC?‘s entry for the American Bar Association’s ‘Best Business Blog’ award. So mad props to Dan Hull and his alter-ego Holden Oliver for winning despite that. As entertaining collateral damage they gave the blogs of the Wall Street Journal and Forbes one up the arse. Nice. Remember Geeklawyer’s saying kiddies:

“it isn’t enough to win: the path to the podium must be littered with the dead and dying bodies of one’s competitors children.”

2) Buffoon motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson, whose extravagantly laboured metaphors are as lardy as his arse, had his Gluteous Maximus handed to him on a platter. He demonstrated that he knew as little about data protection as he does about dieting by publishing his bank details in a press story to show that the HMRC data fiasco was nothing much to worry about and how no-one could abuse the data to his disadvantage. Result? Someone set up a direct debit to a Diabetes charity using those details. Ha ha — stupid cunt.

3) Apparently someone hasn’t told the filth that being drunk isn’t per se a crime. And certainly not one for which an entire pub can be hauled out into the street and made to perform demeaning sobriety tests on the pavements. Even if to do so would help prove publicans were serving drunk people. Imagine, people drunk in pubs?! Whatever next, “something must be done”. West Midlands filth, famed for endemic corruption torture and perjury are now now facing the consequences of enforcing Gordon Brown’s hatred of insobriety and pleasure. They are refusing to comment following a formal complaint. Geeklawyer hopes that those embarrassed in this fashion will sue the police for whatever human rights claim will stand under Article 8: trespass assault or whatever. Mind you, now that crime has been eradicated in the West Midlands the filth must find something to fill their timesheets with.

4) Geeklawyer would normally ascribe the collapse in legal aid to Machiavellian intriguing by the Illuminati but in truth it looks like good old fashioned incompetence and penny pinching by the government. I suppose we will eventually decay into a society where the accused will be aided by US style public defenders no-hopers paid £100 to defend a murder charge or where battered wives can’ get protection. Yay! Go libertarianism.

Amusing judicial putdowns 1

Published on 3 December 2007 in crime and litigation. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

As mentioned previously Geeklawyer did a bit of minor criminal work recently: a bail application before a Crown Court judge. It was interesting to see how the other half live. The robing room was a pit of miserable despair; Legal aid barristers with 6 o’clock shadows (including some females) hovered around in threadbare suits several decades old and cheap scuffed shoes. Geeklawyer is sure that he noticed more than one who appeared to be drinking tins of white lightning cider out of brown paper bags. Female solicitor-advocates fed gin to their mewling brats to quieten them in the back of the court.

Geeklawyer was a trifle alarmed at his brief, both in its prospects and its timing. His head of chambers was unable to get the papers from instructing solicitors until late at night despite a court appearance being first on the list at 9.45am the following morning. This is, apparently, fairly standard. How the devil is a chap supposed to do a decent job when given mere hours notice to read 30 odd pages of instructions? What if Geeklawyer had been going out to dinner that night? Truly, Geeklawyer thinks, the criminal Bar is a fucked up place and he pities its denizens.

The instructions themselves were a pitiful tale. Some vile cur had spent two years battering his wife while in an alcoholic daze. Finally his wife was provoked to complain about him but the system gave him bail until he appears to have decided it was inconvenient and he had better things to do than turn up to court. Arrest followed as inevitably as pupilettes offering sexual favours for a pupillage. On the face of it then the prospect was of attempting to obtain bail for a fellow who had nowhere else to go but back to the marital home and a wife he beat-up and who was an alcoholic prospectively abroad at xmas when more alcohol than normal is consumed. Not a promising brief it would seem.

Geeklawyer is very proud that he managed to get him unconditional bail with minimal advocacy. After obtaining bail and being released by the judge Geeklawyer expressed, in passing, his pleasure at success obtained while not having to engage in much oratory. The judge flashed back:

“Yes Mr [Geeklawyer] I usually find that’s for the best”

He was an amiable witty old chap and since the put-down was not directed at Geeklawyer but to the derelicts (barristers that is, not defendants) he normally had before him Geeklawyer felt disinclined to destroy him for such impudence.

WTF! — Geeklawyer does criminal?!

Published on 26 November 2007 in crime. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Geeklawyer has a mixture of pity and contempt for his criminal brethren. Really, he disparage no-one: MysteryQC does the odd murder and no-one will doubt his considerable abilities. Ruthie does high-end crime too, shoplifting speeding etc.

The thing is, crime is really easy. Really. And never having done it Geeklawyer feels the need to baptise himself at the lower end of the profession: the Criminal Bar. Just once.

And tomorrow he gets his chance at a South East Crown Court. A simple matter is in dispute that’s for sure; but the astonishing thing is the fee for a morning’s work. By the time Geeklawyer travels in, sits about & then bullshits a judge he will have wasted half a day. For £100. Geez. £100 :shock: !! He wouldn’t normally get out of a pupilette’s bed for less than £500.

Frankly it is hardly a surprise the criminal justice system is collapsing with that level of fees. Some barristers, presumably, who aren’t ‘having a go’ for a laugh need to make a living out of this. Poor bastards.

What do they put in the afternoon tea, oop North?

Published on 14 August 2007 in MysteryQC, legal profession and the Bar. 7 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The Bar is often regarded, as Geeklawyer has observed before, by the public as a public school playground. Smug, self satisfied and aloof. Fortunately only the proles think that, so it hardly matters. But if it were a bad thing our Northern colleagues are doing their bit to etch away this image of the Bar.

And heavens, what a ‘bit’ they are doing in Leeds these past few weeks. Everyone has blogged about the peculiar activities of Northerner Lord Chief Justice of Mr Justice Peter Smith. A complex man it would seem and one Victorian Maiden has, in happier times, received kindnesses from, though of a salubrious and appropriate kind obviously.

There is also feverish speculation that the eccentric MysteryQC is from the North, and has peculiar hobbies such as breeding whippets and bare knuckle boxing in disused factories.

And Simon Myerson QC is from Leeds where he practices law from Park Court Chambers (16 Park Place Leeds) collects bad jokes and does ladies hairdressing on slow days (no appointment necessary on Thursdays).

But all of these inestimables are topped easily by one Christopher Dunn of Sovereign Chambers (46 Park Place Leeds — hey! wait…). As the best man at a wedding he not only gave the speech but provided additional entertainment by exposing himself to women and children, and then beating another guest senseless and inflicting serious injuries on him when the latter complained. What a scamp.

Mr Dunn is apparently a martial artist an ex-copper and in his younger slimmer days was a member of the Royal Marines Reserves and a “Weekend Walt” with the 23rd Territorial SAS. Mr Dunns’ practice includes “murder, serious sexual offences, and serious assaults”.

Evidently.

Clearly however Leeds is a dangerous place to be. Gangs of marauding feckless criminal barristers hanging out on street corners in Park Place. If the consequences of the decay of legal aid were ever to be amply demonstrated then this is it. All of this could have been avoided by proper rates, and by confining Solicitor Inadequates to their proper domain. Oh, and not giving tenancies to polytechnic graduates :wink:

Update: props to young Mary Julian for alerting Geeklawyer to the news that Dunn has now been cleared of all charges. Geeklawyer is a bit surprised, but then not knowing all the facts has never impeded him from having an opinion before :P

A most precious & rare thing

Published on 17 July 2007 in Ruthie. 10 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Readers will recall a while back, in antediluvian times, that Geeklawyer and Ruthie ran a well received competition to re-caption a peculiar Bar Council logo. This was won by one Master Hoddy who received a bottle of whiskey.

The runner up was the wild Yorkshire morris dancer James, whose prize was a signed copy of a photo of Ruthie in which she was wearing her infamous pink leathers.

Now young James is not a lawyer and therefore is rather poor. He has less money even than a Legal Aid criminal lawyer. Oooh, :sad: bad.

And since he is no longer a fresh pretty spring chicken he is unable, anymore, to augment his income with lucrative work as a ‘temporary evening companion’ to older gentlemen.

In order to pay the rent he is now, through mist stained eyes, having to auction off his precious photo on eBay. The first hour’s bidding has seen the price rocket from £5 to £21. But this is merely the start and Geeklawyer is aware that bids of several orders of magnitude larger are waiting.

But surely no-one will be so cruel to impoverished James as to make joke bids? What sort of filthy swine would do such a thing? Least of all with eBay contracts being binding; And this being a blog full of lawyers?

Still, we have several QCs here and a rich American lawyer, surely the sky is the limit? …

Is Geeklawyer *really* too expensive?

Published on 23 May 2007 in litigation. 10 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Nearly Legal accused Geeklawyer of being expensive and posted an interesting link to a Times Online article by none other than Professor Sir Hugh Laddie ex-IP judge and mauler of Graceland (nice job on that one BTW Hugh).

Continue reading ‘Is Geeklawyer *really* too expensive?’

Ministry of Justice

Published on 16 May 2007 in legal profession. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Conjuring up mental images somewhere between Orwell and Python the Minstry of Justice went live after very little parliamentary discussion and virtually no press converage on 9th May 2007. The Department of Constitutional Affairs, previously the Lord Chancellor’s department is therefore no more.

Ruthie wonders whether two name changes within the space of 10 years will actually make a difference to the quality of the service provided. The new ministry claims that it “exists for one purpose only — to improve the justice system for the public”, but in the dying days of the Blair government the people grow cynical of “improvement” simply by the repackaging of problems, particularly in the absence of any substantive debate or consultation with the people who are then required to work within the new system.

Statistics thrown out by the Central Committee will no doubt advise us that wheat production has increased 150%, collective happiness in on the increase, and that compared to other countries, where the people are poor, crossed eyed and smelly we are all jolly lucky and should be thankful to our beneficent leaders.

Despite this Ruthie confidently predicts that legal aid will continue to be eroded, prisons will remain overcrowded, young people will still commit suicide in worryingly high numbers in youth detention centres and people suffering from serious mental health problems will still be detained in custody through a lack of funding for appropriate treatment. But hey; we’ve got a great new website.

Cunningly the Minister for Justice is both liable for the funding of legal services, and liable to be defendant in the event of litigation about funding. Huzzah, Judges now get to rule against the Minister of Justice and reduce the provision of their own resources. The sort of constitutional arrangement one might expect of a third world dictatorship; but since we can’t quite bring ourselves to indict errant judges for treason, more subtle methods of control are required.

Carter reforms: got your P45 yet?

Published on 4 May 2007 in crime and legal profession. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , .

It was only a matter of time. Ruthie received a frantic phone call from an old friend following a swathe of redundancies of private practice criminal defence lawyers. The worst affected seem to be medium sized London firms where criminal defence was only one of the services on offer. The commercial lawyers simply aren’t prepared to subside the criminal lawyers to the extent required to produce a competitive tender. Specialist criminal firms are surviving more successfully, but only because they are have adapted to working with low overheads and low profit margins. There are however a glut of small criminal practices in London. Ruthie predicts many will either have to merge or go to the wall.

Any lawyer who took even a passing interest in the reform of legal aid predicted this outcome. However redundancies within the criminal defence field were previously unknown. Sure city lawyers got dumped, but then they were paid at a level to compensate them for the risk. A surprising number of people seemed to think redundancies would simply never happen.

Ruthie predicts within 5 years publicly funded criminal defence services will be provided solely by a few very large specialist regional firms. It’s a Criminal Defence Service in all but name. Just cheaper. As for all the lawyers now joining the dole queue? Anyone with any sense got out years ago, so alternative employment is hard to find.

The dismantling of publicly funded legal aid generates more support than dismay amongst the voting middle classes. As a society we are now more regulated than ever, so the chances of an average citizen coming into conflict with the law are increased. Just remember, if you do get arrested and need decent representation, it’s likely in the future to be very expensive. Still, innocent people don’t get arrested, so you’ve nothing to worry about.

What price justice?

Published on 10 November 2006 in Civil liberties & human rights and crime. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Regular readers will know that Ruthie get very hot under the collar about the erosion of criminal legal aid.

Ruthie doesn’t do legal aid work, but is mindful of the negative effect that the demise of criminal legal aid will have on the criminal justice system as a whole and in particular access to justice for the most vulnerable members of society.

The Law Society has finally got its act together and is running a campaign called “What price justice?” together will a number of leading charities to highlight how legal aid lawyers provide essential services to the disadvantaged and how the removal of those services will have a wider impact on society.

Very few young lawyers are now choosing to qualify into crime. As time passes the pool of talent available to deal with complex and sensitive cases will therefore decrease.

But does the public care? Giving money to lawyers was never a vote winner. Ruthie hopes this campaign will success in raising awareness and sympathy.

But the kind of people who vote are, of course, not the kind of people who get arrested. And anyway Police Officers are all jolly good chaps of integrity, so if someone gets charged they must be guilty, so we don’t need to give money to lawyers to put scum back on the streets.

Well, just occasionally then…

RIP criminal legal aid

Published on 22 October 2006 in Civil liberties & human rights and crime. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Watch the ships go down as the Carter provisions on publicly funded criminal defence kick in. Irwin Mitchell (now primarily a commercial firm, but founded as a criminal firm) has dispensed with the services of its general crime department. There will be many more; Ruthie will update this post as the names come in.

In the meantime consider supporting the Law Society’s campaign to defend legal aid.

A short reprieve was won last week with a climbdown by the Lord Chancellor on the introduction of fixed fees rather than hourly rates for work, and market based reforms have now been pushed back to 2008. Question is, will there be any demoralised criminal lawyers left in business then to implement them? Ruthie thinks the inevitable is simply being deferred and in the meantime its death by a thousand cuts.