Mental health lawyers can choose to do legally-aided work or stop - but whatever they decide, there is 'zero chance of getting more money from the Treasury', Legal Services Commission (LSC) director Crispin Passmore warned last week.
Speaking at the Mental Health Lawyers Association (MHLA) summer conference, Mr Passmore said fixed fees - to be implemented on 1 January 2008 - were calculated as an average across all the types of work that mental health lawyers undertake. 'Some you win, some you lose,' he said.
Responding to protests from delegates that the fixed fees were set too low to be viable, he said: 'You've only seen your own firm's data - I've seen every firm's data.'
He added: 'The MHLA has been telling me for the last three years that there will be a mass exodus from publicly funded mental health work - and yet you're still here.'
Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, told delegates it was 'disgraceful' that the LSC's figures took no account of individual firms' client bases.
Jonathan Rayner
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