LEGAL AID: Law Society Council passes vote of no confidence in Legal Services Commission


After a bitter stand-off between practitioners and the Legal Services Commission (LSC), 94% of legal aid law firms this week signed the new civil contract.



But, in a sign of the collapse in the relationship between the two sides, the Law Society Council passed a unanimous motion of no confidence in the LSC.



Leading firms which had been threatening not to sign - including Bindman & Partners, TV Edwards, Fisher Meredith and Steel & Shamash - finally returned the contract to the LSC under protest, after the deadline was extended to five o'clock on Monday.



Many felt they had been bullied into signing, after perceived threats from the LSC that they would not be able to continue to carry out remainder work and that money paid on account would immediately start to be recouped.



A letter signed by 94 firms appeared in The Times denouncing the 'cynical' and 'threatening' actions of the LSC, while the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) condemned what it called the commission's 'abuse of power'. LAPG chairman Roy Morgan attacked the LSC's use of 'economic duress' and 'questionable threats to remove firms' current business' to force suppliers to sign a contract that he said was so fundamentally flawed that a firm of commercial contract lawyers would not advise their client to sign.



The Law Society meanwhile warned that if it does not receive a satisfactory response by 5 April to its letter before action about the LSC's powers to amend the contract, it will launch judicial review proceedings immediately.



Vice-President Andrew Holroyd said: 'Some 99% of suppliers told us they were not happy with the contract but of course the LSC had them against the wall and the decision they faced was between signing this or leaving legal aid for good.'



Three small south London firms did not sign the contract - Powell Forster, Everett & Co and JC Gorringe & Co.



John Gorringe said: 'It was not just the unfair contract terms that led to my decision, but also the changes it is due to facilitate [fixed fees, competitive tendering and the launch of community legal aid networks], which will bring about the dismantling of the legal aid system.'



LSC chief executive Carolyn Regan said she wrote to encourage firms to sign and correct what she claimed was unbalanced advice from the Law Society, but insisted there was no threat to recoup money paid for ongoing cases.



The council motion said the LSC, in its determination to press ahead immediately to change legal aid, had failed to negotiate adequately with the Society or consider or respond to its legal advice. It added that the LSC had dismissed the warnings of the Otterburn report and others as to the dire consequences of its plans for the public and access to justice.



An LSC spokesman said it was disappointed by the motion. 'It is very unhelpful and does not support the constructive and open dialogue the LSC and government have sought with the Law Society.'



Catherine Baksi