The Witchfinder muses on a case in which a kindly solicitor acting pro-bono was unjustly punished.
This is the cover of a book by Charles Dickens. It’s … like .. about how *NOT* … to do it. Do not use as a guide to legal practice.
I was flattered when the Daily Mail picked up my story on the jailing of WM – a woman who can now be named as Wanda Maddock. Their work is impressive. However her case is by no means the only injustice perpetrated in the Birmingham Family Courts.
The legal system is undergoing cuts. Not as some left wingers and vested interests say, for the purposes of undermining access to justice nor for some other pernicious reason but instead because this country is short of money. It helps that there are bloated and inefficient reaches of our legal system that may have benefited from a little judicious slashing anyway, but the grim truth is that resources are scarce indeed.
In this new environment where lawyers, like many professionals, must put up with falling revenues those who take time out to do pro-bono work should be praised and recognised.
Sadly, in Birmingham the saying that ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ seems to be truer than elsewhere. I write again on the unfortunate topic of HHJ Martin Cardinal. This time I refer to a Court of Appeal case where he was humiliatingly smacked down after wrongfully making a wasted costs order against an innocent solicitor. The judgement is available on BAILII, and is well worth reading. As ever the Witchfinder provides no more information in this article than is available in the public judgement.
