Mental health solicitors warned this week that they will down tools if the Legal Services Commission makes them work under a fixed-fee system, amid concerns that it could drive experienced practitioners out of legal aid.

At a meeting this week, the Mental Health Lawyers Association (MHLA) committee voted to ask its 500 members - who make up some two-thirds of mental health practitioners - not to accept fixed fees if they do not agree with the terms of the agreements.


MHLA chairman Richard Charlton said it would engage in consultation on the issue but would no longer co-operate with the mental health tribunal system if its members felt the new payment structures would act to the detriment of solicitors and their clients. MHLA is concerned that any fixed-fee regime would ultimately result in pay freezes. '[The committee] overwhelmingly felt that MHLA should encourage its members not to co-operate,' Mr Charlton said, although he stressed that any strikes would be a last resort.


Last month, the government admitted that people with mental health problems were going without legal advice, mainly because they did not think they could get the help they needed. A paper unveiled this week by Mr Charlton and north London-based sole practitioner Professor Anselm Eldergill said people with mental health problems often saw their lives spiral out of control without proper help, as they lost their families, homes and jobs.


'The lawyers fighting social exclusions are already drying up, and many will be looking to leave under fixed-fee plans,' Mr Charlton warned. 'Unless the government changes course, it will be enforcing social exclusion rather than combating it.'


An LSC spokesman said it shared MHLA's views on the benefits of a holistic service. 'Therefore, we are surprised and disappointed that the MHLA is calling on its members to boycott a fixed-fee scheme that has not been announced,' he said. 'We have made MHLA aware that the introduction of any compulsory scheme would be subject to a widespread public consultation and that the views of the association and its members would be actively sought.'