Crime lawyers force fresh look at pay ; ;The government came under renewed pressure to deliver more money for criminal legal aid contracting this week, as the Legal Services Commission (LSC) withdrew draft pay rates and other proposals three days after publishing them. ;The Law Society and Criminal Law Solicitors Association (CLSA) wrestled key concessions from the LSC in a meeting this week, and forced the government back to the drawing board to re-draft the pay rates. ;The Monday meeting was also the first time the Lord Chancellors Department (LCD), which will ultimately determine whether any more money is provided for criminal solicitors pay, has been present in a meeting with the CLSA. ;Under the LSCs plans, revealed in a consultation paper issued last week, the standard hourly rate was increased by 6% to 45.50, although this came from money elsewhere in the budget. ;An LCD spokesman said: The Commission are in the process of tidying up a couple of points. Finalised figures will be published towards the end of this week. ;The LSC hopes to settle the new pay structure, rates and monthly payment arrangements in early February. The criminal contract is scheduled to take effect from April. ;The consultation paper said the LSC has decided against ending police station duty solicitor standby payments. The LSC is also believed to be pushing for more money from the Lord Chancellors budget to pay for the extra administrative costs of contracting. ;But at the CLSAs annual conference last weekend, Legal Services Commissioner and well-known legal aid solicitor Anthony Edwards took the same line as the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, who told the Warwick Law Society on Friday that the government aims to break even. ;Rodney Warren, chairman of the Law Societys access to justice working party, said: The criminal defence system will only be sustainable in there is an increase in rates. ;CLSA president Franklin Sinclair warned the 200 solicitors at the conference that they will come under pressure to sign the contract, but urged them not to give in to the pressure. He said: The time has come for all criminal lawyers to unite and to say: No, we will not sign a contract so fundamentally unreasonable and one-sided as this one. ;Current Law Society thinking is that solicitors should not sign, particularly as parts of it are believed to require solicitors to breach the practice rules. ;One concession is believed to be the amendment of a provision in the consultation paper which would end fixed-fee payments for telephone advice where a solicitor claims for attending a police ;station the same night. ;Mr Sinclair accused the government and LSC of underestimating the strength of feeling about the issue. They do not have a fall-back position, he said. They did not think that we were this strong. They simply say contracting will begin on 2 April. Well, I have a message for them: It wont unless the unfair and one-sided terms are amended, and unless administration is paid for separately. ;LINKS www.clsa.co.uk ; ; ;