'Underpaid' solicitors set to quit legal aid

More than a quarter of criminal law firms are preparing to pull out of publicly funded work unless the government increases pay, with other legal aid practitioners set to follow suit, research has found.

Preliminary results of a Law Society survey of 200 firms found that 27% expected to drop publicly funded criminal work - the most prevalent practice area in the sample - within five years, rising to 48% of firms with 11-25 partners.

Even worse hit would be consumer work, with 49% of firms set to give it up by 2007.

This was followed by housing (38%), employment (33%), debt (29%), welfare (28%), and family (21%).

Some 60% - rising to 75% of firms with more than one partner - said the main reason for dropping out was that legal aid work was no longer economical.

Bureaucracy was a problem for 40%, with recruitment troubles cited as the third most important factor.

Law Society President David McIntosh predicted that firms which turn their backs on legal aid work will not be enticed back into the fold by future pay increases, and said a lack of access to legal advice will exacerbate social exclusion.

Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Richard Miller warned: 'This demonstrates that if rates aren't increased to at least take into account inflation - and preferably with a rise on top of that - the government will have a crisis on its hands in a very short period of time.'

A joint Lord Chancellor's Department and Legal Services Commission statement contended that there is 'no widespread problem with the recruitment and retention' of legal aid lawyers.

'The government will seriously consider the case for increasing remuneration for legal aid lawyers.

But we have to weigh arguments for increasing remuneration against the many other priorities the government has to meet and the resources available, now and in the future, from the public purse,' it said.

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Paula Rohan