Remuneration: hundreds of firms fail to renew legal help contracts, government told

Legal aid solicitors have this week renewed calls for the government to increase rates of pay, amid concerns that hundreds of firms have failed to renew legal help contracts.


The Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) has written to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, calling for private legal aid practitioners to be paid as much as those employed by public sector bodies, as it emerged that 210 firms did not renew their legal help agreements with the Legal Services Commission (LSC) this year. The LAPG argued that current remuneration levels are not enough to retain a sufficient number of legal aid solicitors or to bring in recruits.


The government is currently undertaking a fundamental review of the legal aid system, which is expected to report shortly.


LAPG director Richard Miller said: 'Practitioners are voting with their feet in their thousands. While the government offers nothing but occasional platitudes to our members, they will continue to do so. Just how desperate does the situation have to get before the government accepts that it is unreasonable not to pay more for these services?'


The LSC admitted there was a gap in the numbers but said only 169 firms had pulled out between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006, if the number of firms offering controlled representation were taken into account.


A spokeswoman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs said its main target was criminal legal aid, as spending on criminal advocates had risen by almost 80% since 1999, from £197 million to £350 million. Expenditure in the Crown Court for solicitors has increased by 25% in the past two years, reaching nearly £269 million a year.


'There is increasing pressure on the legal aid budget,' she said. 'We have to meet the needs of victims, defendants and the taxpayer through careful targeting of legal aid funds, as well as ensuring that funds remain available for civil cases.'