Family lawyers group Resolution has criticised the Legal Services Commission (LSC) bidding process after one in 10 family law legal aid firms lost its contract.
In September firms bid for new contracts to run family and family and housing legal aid services, due to start early in 2012. Every law firm that applied had heard back by the beginning of this week.
According to initial LSC analysis, 92% of applicants have been awarded a contract.
David Emmerson, chairman of Resolution’s legal aid committee, says: “It is a considerable surprise that so many applicants for the tender failed in what was a non-competitive bid.
“There were none of the quality criteria and panel membership issues that distinguished firms in the failed 2010 tender. It is understood that almost all failures relate to technical issues, but it would be terrible to lose fundamentally good firms from public service on the basis of simple errors.”
Emmerson queries the number of questions within the bid process which “appeared unneccessary” and hopes that issues can be resolved through the appeals process. The eTendering portal by which firms applied for the legal aid contract was “an unneccessarily frustrating hurdle”, he adds. He expressed sympathy for those who work in and rely upon those organisations that failed in the bid.
