Family firms pulling out of 'unprofitable legal aid'

SFLA SURVEY: even most committed practices are leaving field

More than half of family law firms have reduced the amount of legally aided work they do because it has become so unprofitable, while others are set to pull out entirely, research commissioned by the Solicitors Family Law Association (SFLA) has suggested.

The survey of 3,643 firms with family law contracts - conducted by the National Centre for Social Research and Bristol University, and backed by the Family Bar Association - found a 10% drop since 2001 in the number of firms bringing in the majority of their family income from publicly funded work.

This is likely to slump by a further 17% within the next two years.

Meanwhile, just 8% of firms already offering the most limited service - deriving less than a quarter of their income from legal aid - said they would still be doing so in two years' time.

The study mirrors the Gazette's own research, which showed that firms were more likely to cut down or drop publicly funded family work than any other area (see [2003] Gazette, 23 January, 1)

SFLA chairwoman Jane Craig said the government should increase legal aid rates before it was too late because even the most committed firms were starting to pull out, albeit reluctantly.

'Once firms begin to withdraw from legal aid to take on more privately funded work, they are unlikely to return and may well quit entirely,' she warned.

Peter Watson-Lee, chairman of the Law Society's family law committee, said: 'The government's excuse so far for not increasing the rates has been that there were enough solicitors around still prepared to do publicly funded work - the research shows that this will soon no longer be the case.'

The Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) and Legal Services Commission both said they would be monitoring the situation closely.

Paula Rohan