The Legal Services Commission (LSC) last week claimed that an upturn in the number of criminal legal aid contracts is evidence that practitioners still believe publicly funded work is 'profitable'.
A total of 1,799 firms across 2,333 offices have been awarded the 18-month criminal contract, an 8% increase in the number of offices contracted to undertake publicly funded defence work, the LSC said.
Derek Hill, director of the Criminal Defence Service at the LSC, said: 'The number of new firms seeking to establish criminal practices shows that there is an interest in taking on legal aid work and they see it as profitable.'
Law Society legal aid manager Richard Miller said: 'The increase in offices and work demonstrates that with fees being cut, criminal practitioners have no choice but to run ever faster just to stand still.'
Catherine Baksi
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