Justice is being denied to the people of Greater Manchester. Legal aid no longer covers most cases involving housing, welfare, debt, immigration or medical negligence. Between 2005 and 2015, the number of not-for-profit legal advice centres in the country fell from 2,226 to 1,462[1]. Greater Manchester went from having nine law centres across our ten boroughs to only having two. But, our ever-defiant community refused to accept this, and together we fought to restore and improve access to justice for people in poverty and vulnerability.
It is thanks to this collective effort that the Greater Manchester Law Centre opened its doors in Moss Side last year, and we are making great strides to meet the advice and representation needs of those who need it most. We are fighting, together, for free access to justice. But we need more than words and encouragement, and we welcome your support for making similar legal services available across Greater Manchester.
This is Manchester, and we do things differently here. Let’s lead the way and try something new, and implement the idea we dreamed up together. To survive, we need to be creative. Let’s fund our free, face-to-face, high quality legal advice and professional legal representation by imposing a levy on commercial law firms.
Yours sincerely,
Roz Burgin, Development Worker
John Nicholson, Chair
Norma Turner, Management Committee
And community supporters of GMLC
** See media coverage of this open letter**
Solicitors Journal:
http://bit.ly/2sXV16h
Law Society Gazette:
http://bit.ly/2sSVMNg
Our press release:
http://bit.ly/2ugOGXm
[1]
http://www.fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Access-to-Justice_final_web.pdf
