{"title":"Steve Hynes","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"austerity-justice-book-steve-hynes-9781908407207","title":"Austerity Justice","description":"Austerity Justice looks at how the civil legal safety net was established and why it is now under threat, due to a combination of austerity policies and the casual indifference of a few powerful politicians to the state's responsibility to provide a civil justice system that guarantees equality before the law regardless of means.  Over the last 40 years, the civil legal aid system provided by solicitors and barristers developed in parallel with the expansion of not for profit advice centres such as Citizens Advice Bureaux. These services, though not originally conceived as such, evolved into an important arm of the welfare state. They ensure effective redress for people facing the everyday problems that a crisis in their lives such as a divorce, long-term disability or losing a job can throw at them. The austerity measures of the current coalition government mean that from next year this will become a much reduced service.  Access to justice policy might be at its lowest ebb, but the campaign against the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 could have sown the seeds of recovery. The debate over the Act led to a tipping point between members of the coalition government. Some ministers wanted a once-and-for-all redesign, closing off any chance that the legal aid system could expand again to meet the civil legal needs of the public. lndividual Liberal Democrat and Conservative parliamentarians, the Labour Opposition, and the weight of informed non-party political opinion, represented by crossbenchers in the Lords, were opposed to this. Key concessions were won including a section in the LASPO Act which allows amendments to the scope of legal aid to be made in the future.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49518061945105,"sku":"GOR006794330","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1908407204.jpg?v=1751187256"},{"product_id":"justice-gap-book-steve-hynes-9781903307632","title":"The Justice Gap","description":"On 30 July 1949, the Legal Aid and Advice Act was granted royal assent with the intention of ensuring that anyone who needed legal advice would be able to access it. In this timely book the authors describe the origins and history of legal aid as well as New Labour's attempts to reform the system years on. They argue that on its 60th anniversary legal aid has fallen short of its original aims. There exists a marked difference between the numbers of cases pursued to enforce rights and the many potential cases that people never take up as they are either not aware of their rights or they decide it is not worth the trouble to take it further - this is 'the justice gap'.  Though UK legal aid is arguably the best funded in the world the authors illustrate that the public are not being well served by the current system which has emerged from the recent reforms. They clearly articulate the necessary, essential reforms to bridge the justice gap that has been created and also to bring into reality the intentions of the original Act. This title will be of great interest to all legal aid practitioners and commentators and an essential purchase for policy-makers and students across the legal and social policy sectors.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49592409882897,"sku":"GOR002133599","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52585543270673,"sku":"GOR012146568","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1903307635.jpg?v=1751420627"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-steve-hynes.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}