The Anonymous Widower

Courts in Crisis

This is the title of an article in The Times, with the sub-heading “Judges working overtime as cuts and delays put justice at risk”. Read it fully.

Many of my friends are judges, barristers and solicitors and this has been happening for years, but no-one has really stood up to what the Labour government has been doing to justice.

My worry is one that my late wife was very vociferous about.  She did a lot of family work, which involved money, child problems and adoptions.  She was adopted herself and she never really said, but I suspect it was much more a personal thing, than anybody suspected. 

She also did a lot of this work on Legal Aid.  Ten years before she died, she was paid more than what she got in her last year of practice.  She also got more time for preparation in those far off days and everybody was properly represented by competent solicitors and barristers.

But the cuts in Legal Aid, meant that experienced barristers and solicitors no longer wanted to do this work, as they really didn’t cover their costs and there was more lucrative work available.  With the retirement of experienced lawyers, like my late wife, this will all get worse.

And these cases will get handled worse and worse unless the government puts more money in the work.

So should we bother.  After all, if people can’t make their marriages work, why should we as taxpayers subsidise their woes?

Yes! 

Statistics show that the children of broken marriages are more likely to be the ones that will have problems in the future.

July 11, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | News | Law