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Law Society turns up the heat on LSC

Judicial Review proceedings are at an early stage however the LSC will have to take seriously the fact that the tender process was flawed.

EU law requires a tender competition to be fair and open. That means the criteria are to be published in advance to make it a fair competition.

The LSC failed in this regard by not emphasising the importance that they would place on being an Advanced panel member in priority areas of law that come under the family umbrella. Panels are run by The Law Society and are used by the LSC to promote quality. In fact only 16% of Solicitors are on a panel (membership is voluntary) whilst others are members of organisations such as Resolution which also offer “accreditation”.

There is no independent research evidence that panel membership or Resolution accreditation is evidence of quality. There is no independent research evidence that being a member of Resolution is a guarantee of quality.

Anyway a whole load of taxpayers’ money ahs been wasted in a tender process that was poorly thought out, some would say unnecessary in any event, overly complicated and which has failed to deliver the LSC’s promise of appropriate cover in all areas.

Family legal aid gets cut to shreds

An example of how the ConLibs will attack public service was demonstrated recently by the family law legal aid tender. Whilst tendering for business is a common enough experience for businesses it is the first time it has been used for legal services. The MoJ does not own clients. Clients choose a Solicitor and seek publicly-funded advice. The tender process has resulted in a huge reduction in the number of firms now able to offer legal aid and due to fee cuts, only junior staff will be able to undertake the work. Client choice has been restricted.

The MoJ seems incapable of seeing the value that Solicitors bring to the process and have concentrated exclusively on cost.


They have attempted to address quality issues by insisting on advanced panel membership. However there is no evidence that advanced panel membership means anything to clients or guarantees quality.

A Solicitor undertaking legal aid work has to turnover 4 times the number of files than a private client family solicitor simply to earn the same fees. With a cut in fees the only way to survive is to push the work further down the food chain. Less experienced staff will have to do the work.

Imagine if this happened in health care or dentistry or in pharmacies?

All I can suggest is that you contact your MP. They won't care but it might make you feel better.