Myself and my colleague, Dr Elizabeth Peatfield, are senior lecturers in the School of Law and Justice at Liverpool John Moores University. We are currently carrying out a research project which aims to investigate the impact that legal aid cuts have had on the perception of justice among duty solicitors.
Project title: ‘Funding Justice: Analysing the Impact of Legal Aid Funding on Legal Professionals’ Perceptions of Justice’ Research ethics committee reference number: 25/LCP/003
We are looking for volunteers, who are current or previous, Duty Solicitors in Merseyside to complete a short questionnaire.
Volunteers would be invited to participate in an online anonymised questionnaire for one project session with the option to be added to the interview list, for interview in stage two.
Stage one would take about ten minutes of the volunteer’s time. The volunteer would be asked to respond to some questions about the funding structure of legal aid. The findings of stage one would facilitate the creation of talking points for stage two.
If volunteers choose to take part in stage two this would take around twenty to thirty minutes in which the volunteer would take part in a semi-structured interview, through Teams, with one of the researchers. The questions for stage two will be developed through the analysis of stage one data and volunteers will have the ability to look at the questions prior to the interviews.
The participant information sheet and stage one questionnaire can be found here. There is no obligation for volunteers to take part, however this project is part of a wider project looking to address legal funding structures in the UK.
Dr Holly Devlin [Posted 10/11/25]