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The Audacity of Justice: Recession, Redundancy, Rights and Legal Aid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2010

Pascoe Pleasence  and
Nigel J. Balmer
Pascoe Pleasence
Affiliation:
Legal Services Research Centre, Legal Services Commission E-mail: pascoe.pleasence@legalservices.gov.uk
Nigel J. Balmer
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University College London
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Abstract

The 2008 recession presents a double challenge to legal aid. Unemployment extends legal aid eligibility. It is also associated with increased vulnerability to problems involving legal rights, feeding demand for legal services. Job loss, as distinct from unemployment, might be expected to increase vulnerability further still. In this paper, we set out findings from a first analysis of the relationship between job loss and the experience of rights problems. In the context of the current recession, we set out the likely scale of the recession's impact on the incidence of rights problems and demand for legal (and legal aid) services.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 475 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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