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The Law Show

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Conversation about the laws making headlines, and the laws that shape everyday life.

The Law Show is your guide to the law and the legal decisions that have a bearing on everyone in the UK.

Weekly conversation that will give you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it's unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide.

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The Law Show: Lawyers Living Off Legal Aid

The Quality of Advocacy

29/06/2010

Lawyers Living Off Legal Aid

BBC Radio 4 - The Law Show, Lawyers Living Off Legal Aid

Joshua Rozenberg asks if too many lawyers are trying to live off criminal legal aid.

Cuts to legal aid are looming and many criminal law solicitors look set to lose their jobs as a result. But do we need so many criminal lawyers? Joshua Rozenberg investigates.

Towards the end of the last parliament, the then Justice Secretary Jack Straw said that England and Wales had too many lawyers trying to make a living from criminal legal aid. His intention was to cut their number by around 70 percent. 

As the current government eyes up the legal aid budget for further cuts, Joshua Rozenberg asks whether Mr Straw was right or will plans to put thousands of criminal lawyers out of business lead to an unacceptable decline in standards.

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