Legal Services Commission

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Justice that was responsible for the operational administration of legal aid in England and Wales.

Overview

The LSC was responsible for a budget of around £2 billion annually, and helping over 2 million people with their legal problems across England and Wales each year. It was established under the Access to Justice Act 1999 and in 2000 replaced the Legal Aid Board (founded 30 June 1949). Sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, the LSC helped to protect the fundamental rights of the individual and addressed problems that contribute to social exclusion. The Chair of the LSC was Sir Bill Callaghan and its work was overseen by an independent board of commissioners. The Chief Executive of the LSC was Matthew Coats.

Replacement by Legal Aid Agency

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 made provision for the abolition of the LSC. The LSC was replaced by the Legal Aid Agency, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, on 1 April 2013. The agency carries out a similar function to the LSC, although executive agency status differs from the LSC's non-departmental public body status. Independence of decision-making within the Legal Aid Agency is through the post of a Director of Legal Aid Casework, who has independence from the Lord Chancellor in applying directions and guidance to any individual funding decision. Matthew Coats is the Chief Executive of the new agency, and he is also the Director of Legal Aid Casework.

Sierra Leone

Coordinates: 8°30′N 11°30′W / 8.500°N 11.500°W / 8.500; -11.500

Sierra Leone (ⁱ/sɪˈɛərə lɪˈoʊni, -lɪˈoʊn/), officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea on the north, Liberia in the south-east, and the Atlantic Ocean in the south-west. Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savannah to rainforests. Sierra Leone has a total area of 71,740 km² (27,699 sq mi) and an estimated population of 6 million (2011 United Nations estimate).Freetown is the capital, largest city, and its economic and political centre. Bo is the second largest city. The other major cities in the country with a population above 100,000 are Kenema, Makeni and Koidu Town. Sierra Leone is divided into four geographical regions: the Northern Province, Eastern Province, Southern Province and the Western Area, which are further divided into fourteen districts.

About sixteen ethnic groups inhabit Sierra Leone, each with their own language and customs. The two largest and most influential are the Temne and the Mende people. The Temne are predominantly found in the north of the country, while the Mende are predominant in the south-east. Although English is the official language spoken at schools and government administration, the Krio language is the most widely spoken language in the country and unites all the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other.

Noun

A noun (from Latin nōmen, literally meaning "name") is a word that functions as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Linguistically, a noun is a member of a large, open part of speech whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition.

Lexical categories (parts of speech) are defined in terms of the ways in which their members combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ from language to language. In English, nouns are those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase.

History

Word classes (parts of speech) were described by Sanskrit grammarians from at least the 5th century BC. In Yāska's Nirukta, the noun (nāma) is one of the four main categories of words defined.

The Ancient Greek equivalent was ónoma (ὄνομα), referred to by Plato in the Cratylus dialog, and later listed as one of the eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar, attributed to Dionysius Thrax (2nd century BC). The term used in Latin grammar was nōmen. All of these terms for "noun" were also words meaning "name". The English word noun is derived from the Latin term, through the Anglo-Norman noun.

Executive director

An executive director is a chief executive officer (CEO) or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. The title is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though many United States nonprofits have adopted the title president or CEO.

Confusion can arise because the words executive and director occur both in this title and in titles of various members of some organizations' boards of directors. The precise meanings of these terms are discussed in the board of directors article.

Role

The role of the executive director is to design, develop and implement strategic plans for the organization in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. The executive director is also responsible for the day-to-day operation of the organization, which includes managing committees and staff as well as developing business plans in collaboration with the board. In essence, the board grants the executive director the authority to run the organization. The executive director is accountable to the chairman of the board of directors and reports to the board on a regular basis – quarterly, semiannually, or annually. The board may offer suggestions and ideas about how to improve the organization, but the executive director decides whether or not, and how, to implement these ideas.

Victoria Legal Aid

Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) is an organisation that focuses on helping and protecting the legal rights of socially and economically disadvantaged people in the state of Victoria, Australia. It provides information, referral, advice and legal representation services in family, civil and criminal law within Victoria.

As a statutory authority, VLA operates under the Legal Aid Act 1978 and is funded by the Australian government for matters that fall under Commonwealth law, and the Victorian state government. The majority of Commonwealth law matters fall within the family law jurisdiction.

Another source of funding is from the public purpose fund, made up of interest paid on money that is collected by the Legal Services Board from solicitors’ trust accounts.

VLA also administers Commonwealth and state government funding of community legal centres within Victoria. Community legal centres (CLCs) are independent community organisations that provide free advice, casework and legal education to their communities. There are currently 50 CLCs in Victoria, and some specialise in particular areas of law.