David Heath was unknown to Obiter ahead of Tuesday’s launch of the Legal Services Consumer Panel report on access to justice.

Where have we been? This is a person of vision – and not only because he is a qualified optician. The former Lib Dem MP has a mettlesome CV, bookended by a spell as the youngest-ever leader of a county council (Somerset, 1985), and the chairmanship of the Costs Lawyers Standards Board (ongoing).

Heath livened up the report’s launch by proposing a panacea for the crisis, in the manner of a magician flourishing a white rabbit extracted from a topper. At constituency surgeries, he proposed, every MP should by flanked by a taxpayer-funded legal adviser who could triage the problems of the 3.6 million adults who can’t afford a solicitor.

Heath is also a former senior independent director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, so the lord chancellor just might listen. (Editor’s note: Unlikely – it would cost money.)

 

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