Ethnic legal aid struggle

Ethnic minority law firms taking on publicly funded work are more likely to have problems with contracting and receive more slaps on the wrist from Legal Services Commission (LSC) auditors, research has shown.

The LSC's study of 39 ethnic minority firms and 64 others undertaking family and immigration work focused on how they coped with the contracting regime from April 2000 to March 2001.

The survey received a 17% response rate, down from last year's 60%.Overall, one in five of respondents - 57% of which were minority firms - said they had had trouble with contracting, including bureaucracy and added financial burdens.

But the report stated that ethnic firms' late entry - on average 2.3 years after other firms - caused more problems than the franchise process.There was little difference in the number of ethnic and non-ethnic firms which were given operational non-compliances (ONCs), which signify the most serious breaches of franchise requirements, although minority firms were more likely to be awarded multiple ONCs.

Overall, minority firms were awarded a third more ONCs than other firms, and were likely to fall down by a greater margin if they failed an audit.Suki Binjal, acting legal director at the Commission for Racial Equality, commended the LSC for undertaking the research.

'The amended Race Relations Act places a positive duty on public bodies to eliminate unlawful discrimination,' she said.A Law Society spokeswoman said it looked forward to working with the LSC to ensure fair contract processes, but warned that for research to be representative, it was vital to ensure that questions were framed in a way which reflected the issues facing practitioners on the ground.The LSC had no comment.Paula Rohan