A meeting has been called for criminal practitioners in south London to discuss the current MoJ consultation on legal aid cuts. The meeting, held under the auspices of the LCCSA, will be held at the offices of Baxter Brown McArthur, 150A Falcon Road SW11 2LW on Thursday 10 October at 18.00.
Click here to download the poster as a printable A4 PDF.
[The image in this article sets out the dates of Haldane's upcoming lecture series. Lectures are to be held on 8 October (police surveillance), 14 November (Michael Mansfield and Haldane AGM) and 10 December (details TBC). All at University of Law, Store Street, 6.30pm. All lectures are free or £10 for CPD.]
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers welcomes the determination, shown at a 500-strong meeting of criminal solicitors and barristers, to escalate the campaign against Grayling’s proposals to decimate legal aid, and to withdraw their labour as part of that campaign.
The meeting, called by the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association, the Criminal Bar Association and the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association, was attended by around 500 barristers, solicitors, and legal executives. It unanimously voted to oppose all the different cuts to legal aid and declared that the Ministry of Justice is not fit for purpose.
Speakers from the platform and the floor repeatedly called for barristers and solicitors to stand united and withdraw their labour from the Courts. There was widespread dismay expressed from both the platform and the floor at the position of the Law Society not to stand in solidarity with their criminal members and colleagues by taking a firm stance to oppose the cuts and support direct action.
There remain discussions to be had as to when and in what form the withdrawal of labour will take place. The Haldane Society would encourage the various professional organisations to agree now that the legal profession will start by boycotting the courts – both civil and criminal – on a specified date and will consider escalating action.
On Saturday 28 October 2013 members of the Haldane Society attended the demonstration in Manchester at the Tory Party Conference. The Haldane Society joined our comrades in The Northern Save Justice Campaign feeder march to the main demonstration, protesting against the vicious cuts to legal aid which this government is attempting to implement.
The campaign against the attacks on legal aid continues. Come to the Justice Closing Down Sale: Everyone Must Go event on Tuesday 1 October at 6.15pm at the Camden Centre. Tickets available here.
[The image in this article is of a demonstration in a street in Manchester. Demonstrators line the street, and the Haldane Society banner is being carried in the middle.]
The campaign against proposed Legal Aid cuts and reforms continue.
Solicitors, Barristers, Chartered Legal Executives and everyone involved in the field of criminal law are invited to a meeting on 1 October 2013 at 6.15pm to discuss the MoJ's latest consultation "Transforming Legal Aid: Next Steps"
Panel Speakers Include:-
Des Hudson - The Law Society;
Greg Powell - LCCSA;
Bill Waddington - CLSA;
Nigel Lithman QC - CBA;
Carol Storer OBE - LAPG
Entrance to the event at the Camden Centre (opposite St Pancras Station) is by ticket only via the entrance on Euston Road. Tickets will be collected and scanned. There will be no requirement to sign a CPD register but if your ticket is not collected or scanned you will be unable to claim your 2 CPD points. You should be able to print your ticket from the link at the bottom of this email.
Tickets are available here.
Speakers: Imran Khan, solicitor to Doreen Lawrence, and Lois Austin,
former Chair of Youth Against Racism in Europe (spied on by the police)
Speaker to be announced.
All lectures at 6.30pm - 8.00pm, held at the University of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE.
http://www.law.ac.uk/our-centres/london-bloomsbury/getting-there/.
Free admission. CPD points available (charge £10).
For immediate release
Five independent Legal Observers were arrested at the UAF and UEE organised demonstration against the EDL in Tower Hamlets on Saturday 7th September 2013. The five were part of a team of 14 Legal Observers organised jointly by the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group (LDMG) and The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.
The arrests occurred when about 150 demonstrators who had been kettled in Mansell Street and were entirely peaceful were arrested one by one for alleged breaches of Section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986. The five Legal Observers were contained in the kettle and remained to the end to ensure that the protesters were aware of their legal rights on arrest. The coordinators of the Legal Observers were shocked to witness their colleagues’ arrest.
Independent Legal Observers are a familiar sight on demonstrations and protests. The Legal Observers were clearly identified by bright orange tabards with the title “Legal Observer” writ large across their backs. The role of independent Legal Observers is to monitor police behaviour and to distribute “bust cards” which contain information about protesters' rights on arrest and details of solicitors they can contact if arrested.
Tony Martin, one of the coordinators of the Legal Observing team said:
“The arrest of five Legal Observers is outrageous. Although we have had individual Legal Observers arrested before, this is a very rare occurrence. What is different on this occasion is that the decision was taken at a very senior level of the Metropolitan Police. This is a clear attempt to interfere with freedom of assembly guaranteed by Article 11 of the ECHR and will send shock waves amongst supporters of freedom and justice.”
Stephen Knight, from the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, said:
“Legal observers work independently of the demonstrations they monitor and are there solely to inform people of their legal rights and to monitor the way in which assemblies are policed. Legal observers are not part of the demonstration and we condemn attempts to criminalise them. Their presence and use at protests has become the norm and the police are fully aware of the role they play.”
The arrested Legal Observers have been released on police bail and are consulting solicitors about their next steps.
The Haldane Society is shocked at the revelations concerning undercover policing and surveillance into legitimate campaigning and protest groups. We support calls for a public inquiry into the level of surveillance, the groups infiltrated and the extent to which surveillance was for illegitimate aims (such trying to smear campaigns or victims of crime and/or surveillance on legal and legitimate protests)
Generations of campaigners, workers and young people have gone through the experience of campaigning in their trade unions, anti-racist campaigns and environmental organisations. They have peacefully demonstrated, protested and taken strike action in defence of their rights and have been shocked to face the full force of the state and police brutality, followed by lies being told about them being ‘violent protesters’. This was the experience, under Tory governments of the miners during the year long strike of the mid-80s, of the millions who refused to pay the poll tax in the early 90s, of the anti-capitalist protesters under a Labour administration in early 2000, recently student demonstrators and many more national and local campaigns.
As lawyers we have a particular concern at the revelations that a person’s right to confidential discussions with his or her lawyer was infringed by the taping of meetings between Duwayne Brooks and his solicitor and we call for the inquiry to investigate the extent of surveillance breaching confidential legal discussions.
We share the outrage expressed by a number of groups and individuals at the revelations that undercover police officers had sexual relations with women, whilst maintaining the secrecy of their true identity. We believe that this practice is sexual exploitation and support the women and family members who are bringing claims against the police. Sexual relations in the context of deceit as to a person's true identity can never be justified.
Information has so far emerged of infiltration into anti-racist, left, environmental, and anti-arms trade campaigns, we call for the inquiry to investigate infiltration into any other legal, peaceful organisation, including the trade union movement and to investigate what links, if any, state agencies may have or have had with agencies co-operating to blacklist workers.
We can see no legitimate reason for infiltration into any group engaged in legal, non-violent, peaceful protest.
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers calls for:
Haldane Vice-Chair Anna Morris attended the International Conference for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines in July. Anna called for the resumption of peace talks. Read a summary here.
The Haldane Society congratulations our executive member Margaret Gordon: winner of the 2013 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Criminal Defence Solicitor
