Circle of friends?

Paula Rohan looks at CLS partnerships and asks whether a lack of funds and too much 'waffle' may result in solicitors standing on the sidelines of the community legal service circle

When the Community Legal Service (CLS) was first mooted in a consultation paper, the then-Law Society President Michael Matthews described it as 'waffle'.

Two years after its launch, some solicitors are complaining that the vehicles aimed at involving them in the process - Community Legal Service Partnerships (CLSPs) - are still being hindered by the same problem.

Peter Gaskin, practice manager at Manchester-based Robert Lizar, used to be a member of his local CLSP but left because, he says, it spent 'about three months' trying to pin down definitions of terms such as 'sign posting' and 'referral'.

He complains: 'What is wrong with the CLSPs is a lack of appreciation of how things work in the real world, because the people who run them are so hung up on obscure points.'

Mr Gaskin is not the only one to complain of flaws in the partnerships.

Last month, a report on the first year of CLSPs, commissioned by the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD), suggested that the role of solicitors in the partnerships has been 'low and diminishing' (see [2002] Gazette, 14 February, 3).

The CLSP regime started out in April 2000 with six 'fledgling' pioneer partnerships in Cornwall, Kirklees, Liverpool, Norwich, Nottinghamshire and Southwark in London.

Launching the project, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, pledged: 'People who live in a CLS partnership area will no longer struggle to find help.'

He said the partnerships would bring together service providers such as law firms and law centres to form networks, also including representatives of the Legal Services Commission (LSC), local authorities and other funders and users of legal advice services.

Richard Moorhead, solicitor and senior research fellow at the Advanced Institute of Legal Studies, observed their creation and published a report on their first six months.

He found that solicitors benefited from working with other parties and building up links.

Since then, 201 CLSPs have developed across England and Wales, covering 95% of the population, and the aim is for it to cover 100% by spring 2004.

Steve Orchard, chief executive of the LSC, says the partnerships are 'doing well, they are well ahead of target in terms of coverage, working effectively on strategic plans, and the funders are engaged.'

Richard Miller, chairman of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, does not doubt that the idea was right.

'CLSPs represent in theory a very good means for providers and funders to work together locally to identify gaps in local provision and priorities for spending, and the best partnerships in practice operate like this,' he says.

However, he adds, many have failed to live up to this model.

'Some of them have suffered from lack of involvement of local authorities and suppliers, others have become talking shops that achieve very little of substance.'

Mr Gaskin agrees, saying he is now 'loathed' to get too involved because CLSPs are a 'waste of time'.

He says: 'I still have a mild interest in it, but they could make it more realistic by asking questions pertinent to our experience, rather than trying to involve us in planning decisions.'

Another issue is - as always - money.

Stephen Hewitt, managing partner at London firm Fisher Meredith, has been on the steering group of Lambeth CLSP since its inception in 2000.

He devotes three or four hours each month to the CLSP, and estimates that his firm is losing around 6,000 annually in fees.

He says there is no way smaller firms or sole practitioners could afford to get involved.

Mr Orchard argues that solicitors are in no worse a position than anyone else, and that the not-for-profit sector is not being favoured, as many solicitors believe.

'No one gets paid extra for being in the partnerships - my staff do it as part of their jobs,' he explains.

'Local authority representatives do it as part of their jobs as well.'

Mr Hewitt says this is missing the point.

'Only employed solicitors are paid a salary, partners in private firms are not,' he complains.

'That means that the cost to the firm of people being at the meetings must be off set by someone else.

"Why should solicitors do unpaid voluntary work for the LSC? If you call a plumber out, you pay an hourly rate, you don't expect the work to be done for free.

It's no different for solicitors.'

Lack of money is also contributing to the idea that CLSPs are talking shops, says Mr Hewitt, as conclusions are reached but nothing is done about them because there are no extra resources to back up the ideas.

'We spent an awful lot of time on our first year report, which came to the conclusion that, in Lambeth, all categories of work are "high priority".

This came as no surprise; my nine-year-old daughter could have told you that.

It is a good thing to confirm areas of high priority need, but to then do nothing about it diminishes the whole purpose.'

Apathy is not helped by the fact that firms are turning away from publicly funded legal assistance work citing low pay, he argues.

'If private practice firms are leaving legal aid, they are not going to show any level of commitment to the partnerships.'

But some solicitors are still enthusiastic about CLSPs.

Matthew Robbins, assistant solicitor at Eric Robinson & Co, heads up the Southampton partnership.

He says solicitors would benefit more from getting involved rather than to 'stand whining at the sidelines', although he is sympathetic to their views.

Mr Robbins believes it is not the CLSPs themselves which are at fault for deterring solicitor representation.

'I think in a way it is "throwing the baby out with the bath water" syndrome,' he explains.

'CLSPs are so closely allied with the LSC, which has had a bad press and is not that popular with solicitors in private practice.

They hear about CLSPs and think, "Oh, here we go.

Another useless lever arch file, another load of bureaucracy, another round of meetings we won't even get paid for.

We'll leave it up to the local charities and other agencies." But I think it is a missed opportunity.'

Mr Robbins maintains that CLSPs can make everyone's lives easier.

Clients can often be passed from pillar to post between council departments, advice agencies and charities, before they finally get through to a solicitor, he says.

'The CLSP means that the number of referrals people have to make is reduced,' he explains.

'If you know what Joe around the corner is doing, it makes it easier to get it right first time.'

It also makes solicitors more aware of other, non-legal services which are out there; for example, he says, it is important for personal injury solicitors to know about local bereavement groups in fatal accident cases.

Mr Robbins would like to see more solicitors getting in on the act, but admits it might be difficult.

'I suppose you could encourage them by trying to educate them, but saying, "do it out of the goodness of your heart" will only take you so far.

Most solicitors feel that legal aid places enough calls on their time, what with pressure to do pro bono work and filling out legal aid forms which they know they will never get paid for.'

So what of the future for CLSPs? Mr Robbins is optimistic about his particular partnership.

'In a year's time, we don't want people to be saying: "Southampton CLSP? What's that?" We want to change the way people provide advice by linking the statutory, voluntary and private sectors.'

Ann Graham, legal aid policy adviser at the Law Society, says it is difficult to judge the overall success of the partnerships because they depend on the individuals involved and regional factors.

'What I do know is that many solicitors are very much involved in the partnerships, but they are vast enterprises and what applies to some does not apply to others,' she explains.

'We [at the Law Society] are in the process of information gathering so that we have an informed view.'

Solicitors are interested to see the results of the review, but many say they will only believe that their presence in the partnerships is taken seriously when they are paid for their time and provided with the resources to carry through the decisions.

Until then, Mr Hewitt says taking part in CLSPs will be like 'swapping deckchairs on the Titanic.'