The prospect of strike action by mental health solicitors moved significantly closer this week after the Mental Health Lawyers Association rejected the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) revised proposals for its voluntary tailored fixed-fees scheme.


Association chairman Richard Charlton told the Gazette that the LSC had made some concessions, but these were not enough to persuade members to back the scheme.



Key concerns include the effect of rising experts' fees and the disorganisation of the tribunal system, with solicitors having to absorb the cost impact of these problems under the proposed scheme even though they are beyond their control.


Miller: changes required

Mental health solicitors have only had two increases in payment since 1991 and the fixed-fees scheme would eat further into already tight margins, Mr Charlton added.

He also warned that the stand-off with the LSC could damage the operation of the new Mental Health Act, which, when passed, will introduce new powers to detain patients and require them to undergo treatment and is expected to lead to a surge in tribunals work.


Mr Charlton said: 'Solicitors are leaving rather than going into mental health work. If there are not enough lawyers, people cannot be represented and hearings cannot take place. The potential is that tribunals will not be able to approve detention.'


Possible forms of industrial action could include a boycott of the court system.


Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG), said: 'LAPG shares the concerns of the association that the scheme may be unsuitable for mental health work. While we have not gone as far as to call for a boycott, there would have to be substantial changes before we could approve of this work being included in the mandatory scheme.'


A spokesman for the LSC said a preliminary analysis suggested that more than a third of mental health suppliers - by volume of work carried out - had signed up to the scheme.


He added: 'The commission is extremely pleased with the response it has received to the scheme. In the light of the voluntary scheme's success, we will continue to talk to mental health solicitors representative bodies about the shape of the mandatory scheme when it is introduced next year.'