The Legal Services Commission's (LSC) flagship policy to set up community legal advice centres (CLACs) was in disarray this week after law centres decided to boycott proposed unified legal aid contracts.

Steve Hynes, director of the Law Centres Federation (LCF), said pilot CLACs in Leicester and Gateshead would not now be going ahead on 1 April 2007 as scheduled because 'no law centre would ever sign the contract as it is currently drafted'.


The Leicester law centre was the only organisation to pitch to run the CLAC there, while in Gateshead the local law centre teamed up with Citizens Advice Bureau to put in the joint - and now only remaining - bid.


Mr Hynes said the LSC contract required law centre directors, who are volunteers, to sign away their limited liability, leaving themselves open to claims from the LSC if the centre went insolvent. He also described the LSC's proposed fixed-fee structure as unreasonable.


He added: 'We are only 62 law centres, but the plans for CLACs and community legal advice networks depend upon our co-operation. And we are boycotting them.'


Law Society Vice President Andrew Holroyd said: 'There may be a role for community legal advice centres but only in areas where currently there is inadequate provision and where it proves impossible to extend an existing network.


However, Community Legal Service director Crispin Passmore blamed a misunderstanding. He said: 'In the contract being consulted on, the LSC never had any intention of asking directors or trustees of not-for- profit organisations to sign personal indemnities or guarantees. That clause of the contract is only intended for profit-making organisations.'


The law centres' boycott came as research from Cardiff Law School and Matrix Research highlighted the need to address each one of the 'cluster' of often inter-related legal problems commonly suffered by the most vulnerable clients.


Key findings included a 50% failure rate among advisers to expose the true extent of clients' problems during interview and a general lack of understanding of how to adopt a holistic approach to problem solving.