The battle over the controversial unified legal aid contracts intensified this week with the Law Society threatening another law suit against the Legal Services Commission (LSC) over its stance on the issue.
In a letter before claim this week, the society’s solicitors, Bircham Dyson Bell (BDB), says the society will seek judicial review to force the LSC to honour its obligations under EU law.
The warning follows the society’s win in the Court of Appeal in November last year, when the court ruled that contract provisions which would have allowed the LSC to unilaterally amend the contract broke EU procurement laws.
In December 2007, the LSC announced its intention to terminate the unified contract and in the meantime consider amending the offending provisions in the contract. However, says BDB, the LSC does not plan any action to nullify the consequences of its unlawful action and is relying on “misconceived” arguments to justify its position.
Since the LSC has failed to adequately address the society’s concerns, the letter dated 24 January says court action may be the only answer, although mediation may be considered “but not at the cost of introducing further unacceptable delay”.
The society wants declarations from the court that the LSC is obliged to nullify the consequences of its breach of EU law, and that the amendments purportedly made by the LSC to the unified contract have no contractual effect.
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