FAO Lawyers, caseworkers, and paralegals with experience of Criminal Cases Review Commission casework.

I would like to invite you to take part in an ESRC-funded research study into the impact of legal aid cuts on the work of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). The research is being conducted under the direction of Prof Richard Vogler and in collaboration with my colleagues, Dr Liz McDonnell and Dr Susann Wiedlitzka, at the University of Sussex.

The main aim of the research study is to examine the impact of legal aid cuts in criminal defence work, with a particular focus on applications made to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). We are interested in finding out if the cuts have had an impact on the number, nature and quality of applications being made.

We understand that you/your firm have previously advised and assisted clients with (potential) applications for review to the CCRC. Your experiences will make a valuable contribution to our project and we would be very interested to hear your views on the impact of legal aid cuts on applications made to the CCRC. Our results will be shared with the Justice Committee via the CCRC.  We understand that you or your firm may have decided to cease taking on this type of casework, but we would still be very keen to hear from you.  One of the things that we are interested in learning about is whether the ‘market’ has contracted in recent years.

In order to try to ascertain as many views as possible on the topic of legal aid cuts, we have designed a short survey which we would be most grateful if you could complete. We understand that your time is very precious, so we have designed the survey in such a way that it should only take about 10 minutes to complete. Your participation in the survey is, of course, entirely voluntary and responses are recorded anonymously. We thank you in advance for giving up your valuable time. Please access the survey via the following link:

https://universityofsussex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eQVwtp79nUehYq1

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions, observations, or concerns about the survey or about this project as a whole.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Lucy Welsh

Senior Lecturer in Law

Solicitor

Co-director, Crime Research Centre

School of Law, Politics and Sociology
University of Sussex