Solos told to quit legal aid

Sole practitioners should bail out of legal aid as government cuts have rendered the work totally unprofitable for small practices, the outgoing chairman of the Sole Practitioners Group (SPG) advised at the weekend.

Speaking at the group's annual conference in Oxford, Clive Sutton told SPG delegates still involved in legal aid that 'unless you have altruistic reasons to continue the service you are providing, you should be looking for a different, more remunerative form of practice'.

Mr Sutton said legal aid lawyers are currently 'providing a service more to the public and the government than an income for themselves'.

His comments support recent views expressed by legal aid activists and the Law Society that the government is creating 'advice deserts'.

Mr Sutton suggested that instead of cutting costs at the expense of access to legal advice, ministers should improve 'the efficiency of the way in which lawyers work, by improving the efficiency of the courts system and the legislation which lawyers have to operate'.

Delegates also heard that a recent survey of their group's membership had shown strong antagonism towards the prospect of an amended practice rule four, which would allow employed lawyers to advise members of the public directly.

Nearly 90% of sole practitioners polled by the group said they were against the concept, known as 'supermarket' or 'Tesco law'.

However, the survey showed sole practitioners to be more divided over the Society's recent decision to drop the ban on referral fees.

More than a quarter of solos who responded to the survey were in favour of the move.

Law Society Deputy Vice-President Kevin Martin told the conference that while he was personally not in favour of paying for referrals, the Society's governing council was left with no option but to drop the ban in the light of pressure from the Office of Fair Trading.'The ban as it stood was essentially unenforceable, and was honoured more in the breach than in the observance,' said Mr Martin.

'The wording was too vague and too broad, making it difficult to interpret - and difficult, therefore, to enforce.'

Cardiff-based solicitor and chartered arbitrator Adrian Heale took over the SPG chairmanship from Mr Sutton at the conference.