Legal Aid: Legal Services Commission consultation raises fears of cost-capping

Legal aid solicitors have this week warned that plans to revise the working of the Community Legal Service (CLS) are doomed unless more money is invested.


In its consultation on a five-year strategy for the CLS, the Legal Services Commission (LSC) proposed measures such as greater use of telephone advice and on-line services, focusing on the most deprived communities and setting up Community Legal and Advice Centres (CLACs).


But the Legal Aid Practitioners Group argued that the plans provided leeway for cost-capping exercises, also warning that the system would fail unless the crime and civil budget were ring-fenced.


It said legal aid clients should be given the same rights as patients in the medical arena. 'No NHS patient is refused an appointment with a doctor because a GP has run out of contracted patient starts,' the group said.


The Law Society said although it welcomed the strategy, the LSC needed to put greater pressure on the Treasury. 'Funding is required not only for additional areas brought into scope, but also to increase rates for suppliers in order to keep them within the CLS,' it said. 'Inflationary costs mean that suppliers take a regular reduction in remuneration each year. This is not sustainable in the long term. The LSC is unable to contain its own administration costs yet insists that suppliers absorb inflation each year.'


But Roger Smith, director of human rights group Justice, said the whole civil legal aid system had turned into 'a mess'. He said: 'The CLS has undoubtedly made some improvements, but legally aided clients have suffered cuts as never before; the whole underlying concept of a single service for legal and general advice is ambitious, desirable and completely at variance with what actually happens on the ground. Official rhetoric on the CLS is diverging from reality - and indeed comprehension - at a startling rate.'