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Tendering hasn’t worked. It has professionalised the provision of legal advice by low paid solicitors who work tick box systems to maximise legal aid billing which have no relation to the steps necessary to win the case building bad practice and frustrating career development. These tender firms in criminal defence are largely staffed by dis-interested part timers whose lack of quality experience makes them unemployable in private defence. Let’s be honest, if we, people in the know, faced prosecution, none of us would use them.
The original purpose of legal aid was to enable every solicitor to provide a private standard of legal advice and representation to the low paid for a reduced fee. It was effectively charity. But it worked. Landlords were kept in check. Ancillary Relief was fair. The innocent avoided prison, and the lawyers could all sustain at the very least a moderate home owning middle class life style. And this was done for many more clients than today, at a far lower global cost, and the solicitors were relatively better paid.

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