News

We are pleased to announce that the firm has been shortlisted for the Law Firm of the Year and The Halsbury Award for Rule of Law Awards at this year’s LexisNexis Legal Awards.

The LexisNexis Legal Awards were launched in 2013 to recognise and celebrate excellence and innovation across the legal sector.

At Duncan Lewis Solicitors our commitment to upholding the rule of law is longstanding. In the last year, we fearlessly upheld and safeguarded the principles of the rule of law, undeterred by a barrage of misguided and misinformed abuse and criticism from the media, public, and even the government.

The quality of our service is unparalleled and our cases have helped shape and develop the law to the benefit of marginalised individuals.

The cuts to legal aid have resulted in many legal aid deserts where access to justice is scarce even for those eligible, furthermore, the pandemic highlighted a number of practices and policies that prevented vulnerable individuals from accessing justice and legal assistance.

In SM v Lord Chancellor, a judicial review claim challenging the less favourable arrangements for access to immigration legal aid for immigration detainees held in prisons compared with those held in IRCs. Our client was detained under immigration powers in prison for over nine months without access to legal advice, unable to challenge the lawfulness of detention, or lodge a human rights and asylum appeal. The court declared that the current legal aid arrangements are in breach of the claimant’s rights under Article 14 taken with Articles 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 ECHR. With around 400 immigration detainees in prisons at any time, the impact of this litigation will improve access to justice for a large and vulnerable group.

Changes to legal aid provision in prisons following SM: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/civil-news-immigration-and-asylum-advice-in-prisons. Amendments have been made to the immigration and asylum category specification to allow 30 minutes of advice to be given to immigration detainees.

In Detention Action v SSHD 2020, we acted in order to prevent a flagrant injustice. The telephone mast serving the two large detention centres at Heathrow failed, meaning that the Home Office-issued sim cards did not work and detainees were unable to contact their lawyers. A number of these individuals whose access to justice had been impeded were due to board a charter flight to Jamaica. We secured an order from the Court of Appeal, staying the removal of individuals expected to be deported on the ground that they had not been afforded access to lawyers.

Our family solicitor, Emily Alice Reed, handled a matter where a child was deemed at risk of FGM if removed to certain countries. The court determined that even if the immigration courts make a determination in relation to risk of FGM, the family courts should still carry out their own risk assessment and are only required to take note of the immigration courts’ assessment as part of that exercise.

In an urgent matter during the height of the pandemic, our housing director Manjinder Kaur Atwal acted for claimant in an unlawful eviction matter. The High Court is to determine whether occupant of shared housing provided to young person under Children Act 1989 is occupied as a dwelling such as to attract security under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. This case shows our team’s ability to challenge legislation and bring test cases to set precedent that will have an impact upon a large number of people.

During the pandemic our commitment to undertaking important cases representing the most marginalised in our society, has continued unabated, in ever-more challenging conditions. Our solicitors continued to represent clients to the highest standard despite the restrictions of the pandemic and our established pro bono committee ensured that those in need were able to access our services through various initiatives and surgeries.