Action: attack over decision by Lord Chancellor to reveal campaigning solicitor's legal aid supplier status to Labour peer

A solicitor who campaigns against the closure of care homes has launched an action against the Lord Chancellor alleging misfeasance in public office.


Yvonne Hossack launched the action against Lord Falconer after he wrote a letter to Lord Morris of Manchester revealing that the Legal Services Commission (LSC) had designated her a category 3 legal aid supplier - the lowest category.


Lord Morris - a former Labour minister for the disabled in the 1970s - had approached the Lord Chancellor on behalf of the Hurdles Family Support Group, a Bury-based charity and client of Ms Hossack.


Hurdles' chairwoman Geraldine Greene was concerned that Kettering-based Ms Hossack, who is bringing a judicial review over a decision to cut the group's funding, could be forced to withdraw from the case because of a separate dispute with the LSC over her charges.


Ms Hossack claims the Lord Chancellor's actions in getting involved in a specific matter breached his powers under the Access to Justice Act 1999. An application to strike out the claim will be heard in December.


She said: 'When the public hear someone is a category 3 solicitor, they presume the quality of work is poor, not that it is a result of [discriminatory] regulations. Lord Falconer's letter was clearly intended to imply that I am a poor-quality solicitor. Lord Falconer did not make any inquiries of me before he sent the letter.'


The DCA would not comment before the case had been heard.


Ms Hossack was placed in category 3 following an LSC audit last year. She issued proceedings against the LSC under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) on the grounds that a rule allowing only 30 minutes for initial client consultation discriminated against disabled and mentally ill clients, who needed more time. The LSC won the action on the basis that there was enough flexibility in the rules to prevent discrimination.


Ms Hossack claims that when she appealed against the LSC audit decision to downgrade her status, the LSC said the regulations were fixed and could not allow her more than 30 minutes. Ms Hossack, who is seeking a further appeal, added: 'I have given up my home, my car, my livelihood to do this work.'


An LSC spokesman said: 'Ms Hossack's DDA case was struck out as the judge considered it had no reasonable prospect of success. She was ordered to pay the commission's costs of £4,878.


'Despite appealing against the findings of the commission's audit, the decision of Ms Hossack's peers was that she remain a category 3 supplier... [She] is not limited in the amount of time that she can spend on a case, but is required to account for the work that she does just like every other solicitor that carries out publicly-funded work.'


Ms Hossack said: 'I am furious and dismayed that the evidence given to the peer review was so different to when I applied to have the contract changed under the DDA.'