Legal aid solicitors given fresh hope by LCD review

CONSULTATION: action after criminal and civil overspends

Surprised legal aid practitioners will have a fresh chance to convince the government about the problems they are experiencing, after the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) revealed that it will issue a consultation on the future of public funding.

A LCD spokeswoman said it had decided to consult in light of overspends on both criminal and civil legal aid, and insisted that it was keeping an open mind about the situation.

'Clearly, we have to live within our budget, but no decisions have been made yet,' she said.

'We will be consulting shortly on the future of legal aid, both with the profession and with the general public.'

She also dismissed as 'pure speculation' concerns that it was set to cut rates of pay or clamp down on the number of contracts.

'For people who do regular legal aid work, we do not anticipate denying them the opportunity to carry on,' she added.

Practitioners have for months dreaded a government announcement on legal aid amid fears that it would involve cuts to an already strained budget; there was no hint that consultation was in the pipeline.

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said solicitors found that current pay rates were unsustainable.

'Cutbacks would force more lawyers to pull out of the scheme, leaving many of the most vulnerable without legal representation,' she warned.

'The proposed consultation will provide another opportunity for us to make our concerns known to government.'

Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, urged the LCD to publish the consultation as soon as possible to stamp out speculation about the its plans.

However, by law any consultation must be delayed until after the local elections on 1 May.

Paula Rohan