Legal aid exodus

The poor rate of remuneration and the increasing level of bureaucracy relating to legal aid work is forcing solicitors to devolve it to the most economical level of fee earner.

As your recent article says in its quote from Robert Sayer, the government is keen to promote this (See [2000] Gazette, 18 May, 1).The government will soon find even more members of the public complaining as more and more solicitors give up this type of work.

Being public spirited people many solicitors are continuing with legal aid work so as to provide a service to clients who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

I predict that they will only be able to continue this loss-making workfor a limited time.

The Community Legal Service and its 'reforms' are making the situation worse, not better.The Lord Chancellor said something to the effect that he would keep squeezing until the solicitors started squealing.

He will now find that it is the voters, not the solicitors, who are squealing.Mike Sanders, member of the Law Society's Family Law Panel