Legal aid solicitors have hit out at the expanding 'black cloud' of accreditation systems, arguing that they provide no benefit to clients and only bring extra cost and bureaucracy to law firms.

Leading family and crime solicitors argued at the LAPG conference that they had to jump through hoops that other lawyers avoided, adding that only a tiny minority of clients were interested in kitemarks.


Karen Mackay, chief executive of family solicitors' group Resolution, said government and Legal Services Commission (LSC) schemes often seemed misguided. 'Accreditation should not be mandatory, and should be owned by the profession and not the government,' she argued.


Law Society Council member Ian Kelcey said the LSC's peer review and preferred supplier schemes should provide adequate indication of quality. 'Many criminal lawyers see [qualifying for accreditation] as a black cloud on the horizon,' he said.