The Legal Services Commission (LSC) will cut the bureaucratic burden faced by family lawyers doing publicly-funded work, a senior official told delegates in Birmingham.

Angela Lake-Carroll said an internal reorganisation at the LSC, which led to the creation last March of the specialist children and family services division (CFSD) at the commission's London headquarters, would be rolled out on a regional basis.


Lake-Carroll: forecasts single point of contact for solicitors

Family solicitors will eventually have a single point of contact in their areas to individuals with relevant expertise 'as soon as we can recruit them'.

The number of forms solicitors have to fill in at the various stages of a matter will be reduced to just one, Ms Lake-Carroll added.


She said: 'What we want to establish is a seamless service for the client, so solicitors do not have to return to us and interrupt their work.


'The new division is the first time we have focused our activities in one place - it helps us to have a very good look across the piece.'


Responding to delegates' criticisms of the LSC's administration and controls placed on the number of matter starts, she said: 'We know there is a lot to do and the CFSD is the first step.'


Ms Lake-Carroll also told delegates that the commission was committed to expanding the Family Advice and Information Networks (FAINs) project.


She said: 'FAINs is a developmental project. There is a great deal more work to do networking with other groups - it can be frustrating if as a practitioner you do not know who the other [professional] people are.'