Bar hits back at councils' plan to cut counsel spend

The plan by a consortium of 12 councils in the north-west to cut spending on barristers by 25% in child care cases has provoked a backlash from the Bar Council, which argues the move is anti-competitive.

The consortium plans to introduce a system of standard fees across the councils, managed by FirstLAW, the legal tendering and audit service (see [2003] Gazette, 13 March, 3).The rates range for 50 an hour and 150 for a half-day hearing for barristers of one to five years' call, to 100 an hour and 450 for a full-day hearing for those over 11 years' call.The consortium hopes to save 250,000 on its 1 million budget for child care work, and could extend the initiative if successful.

However, the Bar Council has written to tell members that the fee rates could be anti-competitive and that they could decline the work.

The letter said: 'The Bar Council is concerned that these rates are unreasonably low for the level and importance of the work involved.

The Bar Council is concerned that this is an inflexible scheme, which permits no variation to reflect factors such as complexity or level of court.

'These fee levels are below those paid under the graduate fees scheme in family law and below the level which the free market produces.'

Sylvia Roberts, borough solicitor at Tameside Council, who heads up the consortium, said some local chambers have responded positively.

She added: 'Local authorities up and down the country are very interested in the scheme.

We intend to carry on and don't see any difficulties.

We cannot see that what we are doing is distorting competition.

We are simply trying to obtain best value for the councils we represent.'

Anthony Armitage, the former City solicitor who set up FirstLAW, said: 'We don't accept that the fees do not reflect the seriousness of the work.

We didn't compare our proposed fees with the graduated fee rate, which we felt was too complicated.'

The figures were based on the fees paid to legal assessors, mostly QCs and judges, serving the fitness to practise committees of the General Medical Council, he said.

Grania Langdon-Down