From the 1890s onwards, social reformers, volunteer lawyers, and politicians increasingly came to see access to affordable or free legal advice as a critical part of helping working-class people uphold their rights with landlords, employers, and retailers – and, from the 1940s, with the welfare state. Whilst a state scheme was launched in 1949, it was never fully implemented and help from a lawyer remained out of the reach of many people. Lawyers for the poor is the first full-length study of the development of voluntary action and mutual schemes to make the law more accessible, and the pressure put on the legal profession and governments to bring in further reforms. It offers new insights of the role of access to the law in shaping ideas about citizenship and civil rights in the twentieth century.
Table of Content
List of abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Making free legal aid and advice the business of state and profession
2 The Poor Man’s Lawyer
3 The political law
4 The trade unions and legal services
5 Technology, access and education
6 Advice services in the post-war welfare state
Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Index
About the author
Katharine Bradley is Lecturer in Social History and Social Policy at the University of Kent
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