Brian

Legal aid lawyers spend quarter of day on unpaid work Landmark research reveals hidden and non-chargeable cost of managing cases and contracts.

My new research report with @wearelapg.bsky.social shows legal aid practitioners spend a quarter of their working day, on average, on non-chargeable tasks essential to the running of their legal aid cases or contract: www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/legal-a...

Solidarity to you and @colinyeo.bsky.social - what a rubbish article: rubbish “arguments”, rubbishly argued.

Glaringly, the title poses a solution of chucking all the lawyers and yet it concludes with “it’s beyond the scope to produce a detailed answer” 😓

Will be talking about a (fingers crossed) soon to be published report on how the Care Act is working for migrants (hint: it doesn’t)

If you work with any vulnerable individuals, do come along!

www.lag.org.uk/events/ticke...

Proud to have joined @legalactiongroup.bsky.social as a trustee. I was rather reluctant to leave my work on legal aid and access to justice, so am very grateful for this opportunity to keep fighting for this issue.

Incidentally, will also be speaking at the next care act conference.

I really don’t understand the logic - I guess they just want to be able to say numbers down? My friends and I went abroad for uni because, ranking asides, genuinely think education here is better than back home. But would no way have spent tens of thousands if the option to settle is so restricted

incredible migrant charities all across the country. Very happy to share my experience

Shabana spewing the same exact, also racist, nonsense as Rishi just a few years back about their “hard working” parents who deserved to be in this country feels like rock bottom if there’s ever a bottom.

I guess if you’re an international student / worker, time to start volunteering at the many

learnt probably 80% of my actually used legal skills and knowledge from the amazing @squeakinglyjen.bsky.social and others.

A few last things to wrap up but looking forward to taking a break and think what’s next. Who knows, maybe I’ll return to a suddenly humane and fair immigration system 🤔

Right that’s it, end of my last official day at @migrantsorganise.bsky.social It was exactly 11 years ago to the month that I applied to be a mentor thinking this would be a cool side experience to put on my CV. I had just moved to the UK, so It’s really been a home away from home where I’ve

As annoyed as I am with commute this is so great. I don’t get the reaction of those earning similar or less saying drivers are unreasonable: if you do full time work and still can’t ever afford a house, then yes it is too low: and yes all most of us are paid too low - go on strike like them

Kind of. It’s a very hard line to tread for sure and the police / mags obviously have their own problems and underfunding to deal with - but they do have some responsibility. To give an extreme example: SS personnels weren’t innocent just because they were following orders and the “law” at that time

Solidarity to anyone else spending the evening filling out family reunion forms 😪 should really be learning Arabic instead of French

Received immediate response saying “I find your email aggressive…”

Well, yes, that’s the whole point.

Sent a rather angry email to a consultant who, after 2 months of chasing, refuses to provide a supporting letter on how the current accomodation is unsuitable. Said in one line to ask the GP, completely ignoring my explanation as to why that would not be as good.

defer to them and say that it's up to the government to decide where art 8 balance lie. The policy will not work or deter anyone who came in desperate need to survival, things won't improve and Graham King and his cronies will get richer, and the migrants will get blamed again, and another policy...

Another day, another inane policy to tackle non-existent problem. There'll be an uproar in the sector, people's lives will be horribly affected, there'll be a court battle when in the end the Home Office will come up with enough vague "exceptional circumstances" tests that the court will eventually

Complaints work very well for reporting conditions too, especially for requesting digital reporting. Ask the ROM to raise the request to a manager with complaint on the subject line and send to the same email address of the reporting centre and digital reporting team

the system, but to a certain degree maybe also just take a second to think.

somehow becoming a problem. If you are in a back channel actual negotiation with the MoJ or the chancellor, fine, feel free to compromise. But in public consultations, literally what is the point of not asking for what you need? Yes this kind of attitude relates back to the oppressive nature of

I get so upset when someone who works in the sector talks about how they “accept” there’s a limit to how much legal aid can be increased / there’s no magic money tree. Why even get into that discussion?? The rate hasn’t been increased since 96, we are *so* far off from overfunding of legal aid

Very happy about this!! It’s been such a pleasure working with him for the past 2.5 years

Finally some movement! It’s nowhere enough but considering how we were talking about 15% uplift for nasty IMA work, for me this is good enough to keep fighting. If you are in the organising group we have the summit next week, 11 July, please let me know if you’d like to come! Let’s plan next steps

I know it’s not supposed to be about the money but seeing the DWP paying 20k+ in backdated payment to someone who really should’ve been granted PIP from the beginning just feels so satisfying… He’s also just the sweetest man with a new baby - so overall not bad timing to get a lump sum!

Why is an eVisa not good enough for the SRA and Kaplan when the Home Office keeps extolling how much better and secure it is??

Really, eVisa is not acceptable as a valid ID and if someone fails to provide an acceptable ID AND one with signature not only will they be denied entry, they will forfeit thousands of pounds in fees

@migrantsorganise.bsky.social we have refugee members planning to sit this exam.

Always a bit in two minds when the home office / DWP doesn’t show up during appeals. On the one hand, better for the case. On the other hand: their decisions caused so much pain, misery and problems for the individual and they can’t even bothered to appear to defend it??? 🤬🤬

📢Free online solidarity training !

In an increasingly hostile climate, we need public sector workers to stand up and speak out in solidarity with migrants!

✊🏽 Attend and share these free trainings coming up in May.

➡️ Sign up at www.sknb.org/suso

The next government will claim it’s because migrants are creating too much demand = immigration is out of control = introduce a new bill. We are basically in a twilight zone

We have a prime minister and AG apparently from two leading human rights chambers in the country whose party keep talking about the rule of law since election and yet there’s still nothing concrete on reviving legal aid… consultation on more consultation until we are all buried in PDFs

Everything you need to know about the trans Supreme Court case What it said, what it didn't, and what happens next.

Everything you need to know about the trans Supreme Court case: What it said, what it didn't, and what happens next iandunt.substack.com/p/everything...