Criminal lawyers cry foul as PDS expands

Criminal law specialist practitioners are fuming after the Legal Services Commission (LSC) made the bombshell decision to open two more controversial public defender service (PDS) offices, and hinted that it is likely to push ahead with wider expansion.

Revealing its plans at last week's Legal Aid Practitioners Group's (LAPG) conference in Waltham Abbey, the LSC said Darlington and Chester offices would be added to the six branches provided for in a blueprint for the four-year experiment.

The move comes just weeks after the LSC published its first-year report on the PDS, which showed that although it had cost more than 2.5 million so far it had only dealt with 1,709 matters (see [2002] Gazette, 5 September, 1).

Anthony Edwards, PDS professional head and senior partner at London firm TV Edwards, argued that it was unfair to judge the scheme on its first-year figures, as it was bound to become more cost effective over time.

Mr Edwards told delegates he would be surprised if more offices did not spring up in areas such as Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria and Northumbria within the next three years, with other models possibly tested in places such as East Anglia.

But the LAPG urged the commission to think again.

'It will drain resources from efficient private practitioners to fund an alternative that provides poorer value for money,' chairman David Emmerson argued after the conference.

'We do not believe it is in the taxpayers' interests for the pilot service to be expanded, given the experiences of the first year.'

Rodney Warren, chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association and of the Law Society's access to justice working party, said the LSC had a responsibility not to have an 'undisclosed programme' of setting up offices.

An LSC spokesman said it had mentioned in its original consultation that it might extend the service beyond the original six sites during the start-up phase to test the provision of salaried services in suburban and rural areas.

LAPG director Richard Miller said law students and trainees' interest in legal aid had injected a bright note into the conference.

Paula Rohan