How are poverty and social inequality entrenched through a failing justice system? In this important book, Jon Robins and Daniel Newman examine how the lives of people already struggling with problems with their welfare benefits, jobs, housing and immigration are made much harder by cuts to legal aid and the failings of our creaking justice system. Over the course of 12 months, interviews were carried out on the ground in a range of settings with people as they were caught up in the justice system, in a range of settings such as foodbanks in a church hall in a wealthy part of London; a community centre in a former mining town; a homeless shelter for rough sleepers in Birmingham; and a destitution service for asylum seekers in a city on the South coast, as well as in courts and advice agencies up and down the country. The authors argue that a failure to access justice all too often represents a catastrophic step in the life of the person concerned and their family. This powerful, yet moving, account humanises the hostile political debates that surround legal aid and reveals what access to justice really means in Austerity Britain.

About the Author
Jon Robins is an award-winning freelance journalist, author and a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in the Department of Law and Criminology. He has written about justice issues for over 20 years for the Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Mail on Sunday and Observer, as well as two books on miscarriages of justice. He is the founder of The Justice Gap Website: https://www.thejusticegap.com/author/jon-robins/ Daniel Newman is Senior Lecturer in Law at Cardiff University. He researches and writes extensively on topics around access to justice, including on a bestselling book on the impact of legal aid cuts and numerous journal articles.

Reviews
"[This] powerful and important book shows the human impact of austerity... should be read by all politicians and policy advisers." The Times
"The authors are clear: legal aid in its old form has gone and ain't coming back... We need new thinking, and this book gives a solid base to begin." New Law Journal
"A powerful case for better legal aid." Law Society Gazette
"The skill with which the authors interweave background information... with first-hand accounts of the struggling legal system, is masterful. The aim of this book is not simply to reveal the impact of Austerity on the legal system, and persons living in poverty, although it does a brilliant job of that. The authors endeavour also to offer a sense of a way forward." Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies



Book Information
ISBN 9781529213126
Author Jon Robins
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Bristol University Press
Publisher Bristol University Press