Government plans to make phone calls the main conduit for publicly funded advice in civil cases could increase the average time needed to give advice, according to new research.

The government has proposed making a telephone helpline the ‘gateway’ to all legal aid advice in civil cases. But the Legal Services Research Centre - the independent research division of the Legal Services Commission - has found that telephone advice takes, on average, 14 minutes longer than face-to-face advice, and provides a smaller proportion of tangible outcomes.

The research centre, set up in 1996 to inform legal aid policy, examined the similarities and differences between telephone and face-to-face services for legal advice, using LSC data on housing problems. The study found ‘significant differences’ in how clients with particular demographic characteristics access advice, with those under 18 and those living with an illness or disability more likely to use face-to-face services.

The report states that there is a lack of reliable evidence to support claims that telephone advice better caters to the needs of clients, enhances ease of access or delivers value for money: ‘Whether the economies offered by lower overhead costs of telephone provision will be sufficient to offset the costs generated by higher advice times is open to debate.’

This uncertainty was reinforced by findings that the overwhelming majority of telephone cases do not progress beyond a first meeting.

The report notes that a key benefit offered by telephone services is making specialist advice available to people who are geographically isolated. However, it warns that the ease of picking up a phone creates a risk of services being overwhelmed by callers who do not have eligible problems. Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said: ‘There’s every chance that the proposed telephone gateway will cost more and deliver worse outcomes for clients. If every application for legal aid is initiated by a call to a telephone call centre, justice will certainly be served less well.’

Steve Hynes, director of the Legal Action Group, said phone advice has a part to play, but that the income groups who qualify for legal aid are the least likely to be able to use a telephone gateway. ‘The government seems intent on designing a service that denies access to justice for the poorest,’ he said.