Dr Daniel Newman, author of 'Legal aid lawyers and the quest for justice', already has a controversial name because of a report he produced in the summer which said that lawyers were under such pressure that they had lost their 'moral compass' and were encouraging clients to make guilty pleas early on when this might not have been necessary. Dr Newman, a law don at Cardiff University, argues that further cuts of 17.5 per cent, planned in Legal Aid for 2015, will make the situation worse.
Damage
He said: 'The whole point of the research is to show how important criminal legal aid lawyers are to the justice system and therefore to our democracy. I think they are absolutely vital and I want to make sure it’s working properly. I don’t know that increasing fees will on their own improve the situation, but I say again and again in the book I know that cutting fees will damage it more and more.' Source: Legal Futures
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