A new independent Law Centre has opened in Manchester.
The centre on Princess Road in Moss Sice, is offering a new and vital service offering free legal advice and support to residents from across the Greater Manchester area.
The GM Law Centre was founded by lawyers, trade unionists and community advice organisations in response to Government legal aid cuts, which have seen nine law centres in all ten Greater Manchester boroughs reduced to just two, in Bury and Rochdale.
The new Law Centre has set up welfare rights services, challenging negative Employment Support Allowance, and Personal Independent Payment decisions by the DWP, and has gained the support of lawyers, North West TUC and local trade union branches, local community groups and all five Greater Manchester University Law Schools – whose law students are starting to represent people at tribunals.
“We are not just a law centre, but a campaign – for law centres generally” explains John Nicholson, Chair of the GM Law Centre, “we are not just providing a bit of service delivery on the lines of food banks, though that is important – we are a campaign for properly funded legal aid.”
“We are fighting for a new generation of publicly funded social welfare lawyers” he adds. “While it is great to get so much support from pro bono volunteers, we are not just here to mask the severity of cuts and closures. We are not an isolated organisation, competing with others for the crumbs of statutory sector funding; we want to campaign with others for more for all of us. And we do not just want access to the legal system, we are a campaign for justice!”
