Defending legal aid

What Price Justice campaign

'Well done to the Law Society for adopting such a robust and determined approach in relation to the changes introduced by the LSC under the Unified Contract.'
Liz Fitzpatrick, partner, IBB Solicitors

 

Wins for civil legal aid

Our legal action against the Legal Services Commission (LSC) and MoJ secured a number of wins for civil legal aid. In addition to the issue at the heart of the case - the removal of the LSC's widely drawn right to amend the contract at any time - we achieved:

  • an increase in legal aid rates for the first time in several years
  • better terms for the profession in respect of standard monthly payments, and
  • an amnesty in respect of unrecouped payments on account on files that had
    been closed for more than six years.

Additionally the LSC agreed to discuss a number of issues of concern to the profession, including audit processes, peer review and other quality standards. We also persuaded the LSC to slow the pace of change for civil and family legal aid, and to remove the threat of early termination of the contracts.

On criminal legal aid we negotiated the terms of the new contract, in particular persuading the LSC against proceeding with controversial proposals for key performance indicators.

Speaking out on best value tendering (BVT)

The Law Society submitted a comprehensive response to the LSC's consultation and the LSC subsequently announced that BVT would be subject to a properly evaluated pilot before any roll-out. There will be a further consultation before the pilot is set up, and the LSC acknowledged that the key issues we raised, including those around quality, maintenance of the supplier base and protection against underbidding, must be addressed in that consultation. We secured a guaranteed delay in implementation until at least June 2009.

 

Working with the MoJ on whole system reform

We are working with the MoJ to make the Legal Aid Impact Test effective. Under this test, when another government body proposes a policy that will have implications for legal aid, those implications must be costed and money transferred to the legal aid budget. This year we have started to see the first significant transfer of funds. The Law Society's agenda for whole system reform, aimed at improving the justice system to ensure that solicitors do not suffer from the inefficiencies of others, has been taken up by the MoJ and the LSC who are both now working with us on these issues.

Download the full review (PDF, 909kb)