Last weekend marked 100 days of Labour in government. ‘I’ve never wanted to leave Britain as much as I do now,’ wailed one Daily Telegraph reader, whose anguish was peculiarly elevated into a news story.
Most legal sector observers would consider that reaction a tad alarmist. But perhaps only a tad, given widespread anger and bemusement over the new administration’s lines on legal aid (nothing to see here) and court sitting days (cut).
‘Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,’ sang The Who. That venerable lyric has appeared in lawyerly writings as various as those of Gazette columnist Jonathan Goldsmith, The Times’s legal editor, and, just this week, high-profile barrister Max Hardy. Pete Townshend will be demanding royalties at this rate.
But it’s not just the familiar causes célèbres of crumbling courts and legal aid. A welter of other issues demand resolution. Here’s a non-exhaustive list:
1) Strategic litigation against public participation. The prospect of new legislation has been parked, with no timetable. Anti-SLAPPs campaigners met on Tuesday to revive their campaign.
2) Leasehold reform. Measures passed by the last government have yet to be enacted. Residents’ groups accuse Labour of ‘dawdling’.
3) Whiplash tariffs. The last lord chancellor completed a review in May. Frustrated personal injury lawyers are still waiting for white smoke from Whitehall.
4) Fixed recoverable costs for clinical negligence claims. Originally expected this month. May now happen next April. No one knows.
5) Litigation funding. Legislation to reverse PACCAR fell in the pre-election washup. In an open letter to the government last week, consumer representatives accused Labour of ‘dragging its heels’. The Civil Justice Council’s review of lit funding is expected soon.
6) Legal technology. Namechecked in this week’s industrial strategy green paper, but the MoJ-funded LawtechUK programme concludes in March. There is no commitment to a successor.
7) House of Commons justice committee. Three months in and the committee has a chair (Andy Slaughter MP) but no members. (This may not be Labour’s responsibility, admittedly).
I could go on, but will stop with the title of another song by The Who.
‘Let’s See Action’.
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