Criminal defence solicitors have criticised the 'unfair' and 'arbitrary' way in which the Legal Services Commission (LSC) has allocated police station duty work.


The new system for allocation was introduced following a short consultation on measures intended to ensure market stability and mitigate market fragmentation while the Carter reforms are implemented.



It will mean that duty solicitor slots, currently allocated to individual solicitors, will be allocated to firms in proportion to the number of claims for duty solicitor and own client police station work that they billed between 1 December 2005 and 30 November 2006.



Practitioners have argued that the manner of allocation takes no account of the expansion that some firms have undergone - on the recommendation of the LSC - since the assessment period, and leaves firms that were set up after November 2006 ineligible for any slots.



In addition, the calculation was done using an average of both police station and own client work, which firms suggested has distorted the allocations given to them.



Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said: 'It beggars belief that firms are being penalised for doing precisely what the LSC has told them to do [by expanding]. In some parts of the country, far from being a market stability measure, it is proving to be an earthquake.'



Raymond Tan, partner at Salisbury firm Phillips & Co, said: 'The government's approach was unfair - we were given no prior warning of the method or period of calculation.'



Since the assessment period Phillips & Co has expanded - while it currently accounts for two-thirds of the solicitors on the rota, the LSC has allocated the firm less than 15% of the slots in future.



'The arbitrary actions of the LSC prevent firms expanding and could amount to a restraint of trade,' said Mr Tan. He told the Gazette he is considering taking legal advice on challenging the actions of the LSC.



An LSC spokesman said it will be writing to defence practitioners this week with an update.