Unified Contract: 'abuse of power', says 'excellent' practice


A leading housing law firm has attacked the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) new unified contract for legal aid work as the 'last straw', warning that - unless the terms and fees are renegotiated - it will be forced to withdraw from publicly funded work to avoid being 'micromanaged into bankruptcy'.



Deirdre Forster, who set up Brixton-based Powell Forster with her husband Tim Powell ten years ago, said it had struggled over the years with the LSC's 'increasingly bureaucratic' procedures and now felt 'ground down'.



Ms Forster said she and her husband loved legal aid work and were committed to helping the vulnerable. The firm achieved an 'excellent' rating in its most recent peer review.



However, she added: 'This contract is the last straw. We will not let them micromanage us into bankruptcy. We spend our time helping little people who are receiving bad treatment at the hands of the more powerful. Now we find ourselves being asked to submit to abuse of power. We just cannot do it.'



Vivien Gambling, chairwoman of the Housing Law Practitioners Association, said Powell Forster was not the only firm considering its future. She said the worst hit by the changes would be specialists doing homelessness work or complicated community care cases for vulnerable clients, whose matters are time-consuming.



The unified contract, which the Law Society has been advised may be 'flawed for lack of certainty' and contain a 'number of inequitable conditions' and provisions that could be unenforceable, is scheduled to be introduced for all civil matters from 1 April 2007.



An LSC spokesman said: 'In reality, the new standard terms will make no real difference to the vast majority of providers who have continued to operate both within the terms and spirit of legal aid contracts.



'We recognise there is still some debate to be had in relation to the specification, which we are taking forward in the near future.'



Catherine Baksi