By Philip Hoult


The five leading criminal lawyers' associations this week jointly urged law firms to boycott for the time being a Legal Services Commission (LSC) tender for new criminal legal aid contracts, ahead of a week of industrial action in November.



The Criminal Law Solicitors Association (CLSA), London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, Association of Major Criminal Law Firms (AMCLF), Criminal Defence Solicitors Union (CDSU) and Independent Defence Lawyers have also agreed to become part of a single negotiating team, led by the Law Society.

Meetings of the various associations are expected to take place in October. A national demonstration on 5 November will kick

off the week of action.



'Pending the regional and London meetings, and the advice of the Law Society, the professional associations urge you all not to take any steps to indicate interest in future contracting on unfair and uneconomic terms,' the groups said.



The move follows the LSC's announcement last week that it would terminate the current criminal contracts and run a tendering process for new, six-month contracts incorporating its reforms (see [2007] Gazette, 13 September, 1). Plans to introduce market stability measures next month through amendments to the existing contract were scrapped.



The practitioners' associations have called on the LSC to withdraw the early contract termination and negotiate.



CDSU president Roger Peach said: 'We are now facing the collapse of the system - hence the urgent need to unite.' AMCLF chairman Brian Craig added: 'It is quite clear that what the LSC and the Ministry of Justice have put forward is totally unworkable for firms of any size or background.'



CLSA chairman Ian Kelcey said: 'The commission are the authors of their own misfortune and will not listen to the profession. If people vote with their feet, then the commission and the government only have themselves to blame.'



The Law Society called on the government to halt the transitional provisions 'until it can tell us what the endgame is'. President Andrew Holroyd said: 'As an absolute minimum, it is imperative that the LSC publicly restates its commitment to pay all firms a fair market rate for all aspects of criminal defence work in the final scheme - however that fair market rate is to be determined.'



An LSC spokesman insisted that the reforms are about maximising legal aid access for the future. He added: 'Whether to sign the new criminal legal aid contract is a decision that individual firms will have to take. We are confident that the majority of firms will sign up to the new contract from 14 January 2008. If firms do not register for a new criminal contract, their work will be reallocated to other providers who have expressed an interest in expansion.'