Commission and Legal Aid Reform Bill - going before Parliament

The Justice 2 Committee got around to discussing the Commission and Legal Aid Reform Bill last week. Whilst I have now had a cursory glance over the 4 marshalling documents to see if any of my suggestions have been taken up (published responses below), you might like to take a look for yourself. From my responses you will note that I think it is a good idea to have a legal complaints bureau separate from the Law Society, I was therefore very positive about this Bill contrary to most of the published responses which were in the negative - oops! Am I right?

Website publishing draft Bill

Hmmm - the new draft Bill (Stage 2)

Verdict: Not as good as it could be - still needs work doing to it!

Think I can see reference to:

- delay;
- publicity;
- Police Acts;
- Data protection and confidentiality;
- Human Rights; and
- "advice organisations" (ding) might mean "mediation"
- "complainer" rather than "client" might include whistleblower

Not much reference to experts who work in association with lawyers and their potential misconduct; or
jurisdiction of Commission and others involved in client file who may be from other jurisdictions; or
Mention of Serious Fraud
Not much in the way of protection of "complainer"
Not much in the way of one complaint needing investigation of more than complaint, ie issue over several client files
Not much in the way of corruption within Commission

However, I need to print off a copy and do a proper comparison, then figure out what a citizen does next!


600 + published responses

Is this jurisprudence and democracy in action? Has the separation of the powers between law and politics occurred?

Discuss.