The government should ‘hope like hell’ that solicitors are feeling militant over legal aid fees, the Law Society’s head of justice has told MPs - warning that the alternative would be worse.

Giving evidence to the House of Commons justice select committee yesterday, Richard Miller was asked about the prospect of solicitors taking industrial action.

The Criminal Law Solicitors Association is instructing counsel on the legal position and practical options for unionising. In a separate move, law firm owners with criminal legal aid contracts will set up their own representative body.

Miller said: ‘The government should hope like hell firms are militant because the alternative is they just quietly quit as they have been doing in huge numbers every month when you get the figures, you see more firms stop doing this work. It’s far more encouraging if they are still fighting, still desperately want to carry on doing this work, still want to persuade the government that it is viable rather than just walking away which is what too often we are seeing.’

Richard Miller, The Law Society

Miller: Government should ‘hope like hell’ that solicitors are feeling militant

CLSA chair Daniel Bonich said: ‘Our members want to take action. We’ve always historically avoided taking action. In the past, ministers have said “you’ll never go on strike, you’ll just keep doing the work”. I fear that person is about to be proved very wrong. It’s not something that anybody wants to do. It is sheer desperation. There’s only so long we can shout from the rooftops about our problems. We’ve lost [in 15 years] almost half of firms providing criminal legal aid work.’

The committee heard that firms are already rationing and triaging cases, which could leave vulnerable clients unrepresented.

Kerry Morgan, director of Manchester firm Morgan Brown Solicitors, told the committee her firm may decide to stop taking on cases involving interpreters.

She said: ‘I have cases where we’re paying the interpreter more for attending with us to see the client than we’re getting for the actual case. So, we’re preparing the case and going to see the client, but the interpreter is getting more money than we’re getting paid. So, interpreter cases may well be ones we’re not going to take on. We can’t make a profit. We can’t even break even. So those types of clients will be left without representation.’

 

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