LAUSR

Around four years ago the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law published a special issue on ‘Delivering Family Justice in Late Modern Society in the wake of Legal Aid Reform’ (2013, 35(1)), which was published last year as an edited book of the same name (Maclean, 2016). That issue was concerned with the point where the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) came into force on 1 April 2013, and the potential impact that cuts to legal aid for private family law disputes would have. It also looked at a number of welfare reforms which came into force, adding to the pressures on family life by further reducing the resources available to deal with them. This special issue stems from a conference (titled as above) funded by the Centre for Law & Social Justice, School of Law, University of Leeds. The conference brought together family lawyers, practitioners and members and leaders from campaigning groups and other third sector organisations to consider the impact of legal aid cuts on family law and on access to justice more broadly. Like the 2013 special issue, the conference noted the significant losses to social welfare, civil and family advice providers: