Legal Services Commission Publishes New Legal Aid Rules

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

02 March 2007

The UK's Legal Services Commission (LSC) on Monday published the Standard Terms for the new Unified Contract for civil legal aid providers, which will take effect from 1 April 2007.

The Unified Contract will bring conditions for not-for-profit advisors into line with solicitors who carry out civil legal aid work.

Carolyn Regan, Chief Executive of the Legal Services Commission explained that:

"The Unified Contract is part of wider legal aid reforms which are designed to offer improved services for clients and better value for taxpayers. It is a natural progression from the legal aid contracts first introduced in 2000. The Unified Contract Standard Terms are in many respects identical or very similar to the existing terms, with key amendments to pave the way for the reform programme."

In addition to bringing not-for-profit agencies into line with solicitors' firms, the main changes include:

• Fixed fees for work in police stations from October 2007;
• Revised standard fees for magistrates' court work will be introduced in major urban areas from April 2007;
• A revised graduated fees scheme for advocates in the Crown Court from April 2007;
• A litigators graduated fee schedule for Crown Court work from October 2007;
• A single graduated fee scheme in October 2008, which will combine fees for both Crown Court litigators and advocates;
• A Care Proceedings Graduated Fee scheme from October 2007 following a further consultation;
• A revised scheme for legal help for people facing family problems from October 2007 following a further consultation;
• Revised schemes for immigration and mental health work from October 2007;
• New provisions relating to e-business and equality and diversity;
• The LSC will be permitted to set a minimum number of new cases to be started by an individual office each year as well as a maximum; and
• The LSC will be given the right to amend the Unified Contract when it considers it necessary or desirable to do so in order to facilitate the reform of legal aid in England and Wales.

However, the proposed changes have proved controversial, and the Law Society announced earlier this week that its lawyers are in the process of finalising their analysis of the unified legal aid contract.

In a statement, the Law Society revealed that:

"So far their view is that the contract, although significantly amended following negotiations with the Society, still does not represent a fair deal for practitioners."

It went on to add that:

"The main areas of concern are:

• The contract may be unilaterally amended by the LSC on as little as seven weeks' notice thus depriving practitioners of both legal and commercial certainty.
• The contract is terminable by the LSC, without fault on the part of a practitioner, on six month' notice without compensation.
• Practitioners are deprived of a contractual right of appeal in respect of some profoundly important decisions which the LSC has the right to make under the term of the contract.
• In certain cases the contract permits the LSC to act with unqualified discretion."

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