Lord Irvine shelves graduated fees for family solicitors
Family law practitioners were breathing a sigh of relief this week after the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, shelved plans to introduce a graduated fee system for solicitor-advocates.Worried solicitors contacted the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) arguing that extending the scheme - which is blamed for barristers scrapping the 'cab-rank' rule - would make it unprofitable for them to take on legally aided family work.The system revolves around a table of fixed fees for each stage of a case, with barristers allowed to claim back one payment per stage (see [2001] Gazette, 20 September, 1).Child care specialist John Myers of Leeds-based Jones Myers Gordons wrote to Lord Irvine, warning him: 'None of us will be able to continue and the profession will be stripped, almost at a stroke, of all experienced practitioners.'Mr Myers said he was 'pleasantly surprised and relieved' to get a reply from the Lord Chancellor.
'We have no plans to introduce a graduated fee system for family solicitors,' Lord Irvine wrote.
'You can also have my firm assurance that the concerns you raise about profitability and the sustainability of the service will weigh heavily in any future decisions I make.'Richard Miller, chairman of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said: 'It was very worrying to think that the LCD was considering extending [graduated fees] to solicitors, so this is extremely good news.'David Burrows, vice-chairman of the Solicitors Family Law Association (SFLA), said the decision was 'encouraging'.
He added that the SFLA is now in talks with the Family Law Bar Association (FLBA) in a bid to turn around the shortage of barristers willing to take on publicly funded family work, which resulted from the new funding scheme.'We are working with the FLBA to let its members know that where cases are successful, barristers - like solicitors - can charge full rates rather than legal aid rates,' Mr Burrows explained.
Paula Rohan
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