Criminal defence solicitors were angry this week that a national police station telephone advice pilot approved by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) will effectively mean a cut in legal aid rates.

Solicitors are furious that they will not be paid for telephone work under the Criminal Defence Service (CDS) Direct pilot to be launched nationwide in April.


However, protests from London solicitors have caused the LSC to back down from imposing a second stage of the pilot - which will take place in Liverpool and Boston, Lincolnshire - in the capital.


Under the national pilot, matters that currently qualify for telephone legal advice only - such as drink- driving offences or arrests under warrant - will be dealt with initially by a CDS call centre, manned by staff accredited with the Law Society's police station qualification. Duty solicitors will take over cases where a police interview or an identity parade is scheduled to take place - but they will not be paid for any telephone calls with CDS Direct.


Criminal Law Solicitors Association director Rodney Warren said: 'The LSC has claimed there will be a £1 million saving through the CDS Direct pilot. We do not accept that solicitors should be expected to undertake work for nothing. If this £1 million is to be achieved by not paying solicitors, we are unimpressed.'


He added: 'Solicitors will need to get details from the telephone operatives of what has gone on and what advice has been given, but the LSC is not prepared to pay for this.'


Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, added: 'It is not just the initial call from the CDS handing over the case, but there will also be other calls further down the line. This is a cut in fees for no just reason and with no cut in the work we are expected to do.'


The national pilot will be taken a step further in Liverpool and Boston, where the CDS Direct call centre will handle initial advice for all non-indictable only offences.


Robert Brown, chairman of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, said he was relieved this pilot would not take place in London, but added that London solicitors like others would still be subsidising CDS Direct if they were not paid for telephone calls.


An LSC spokesman said it was appropriate that solicitors should not be paid for telephone advice as this would not affect the level of service provided to clients and would only apply where a police interview or identification has been arranged.


Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said call centre staff must be properly trained to recognise the limits of their competence.