Lawyers fear widespread collapse of criminal law firms

Many firms are in dire financial circumstances due to the COVID-19 crisis exacerbating existing difficulties. Law Society figures released this week showed 124 criminal law firms (10% of the total) have closed in the past year. And, while many practitioners hoped the ‘accelerated items’ list―concerns prioritised by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)―would help, this has fallen short.

Consequently, the Law Society issued an urgent call for help this week, in a supplemental response to the government’s criminal legal aid review.

It called on the MoJ to address firms’ cashflow problems through adjustments to how the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) pays for work; provide relief for law firms from business rates; and immediately reverse the previous cut of 8.75% for criminal legal aid. It urged the MoJ to ‘improve the broader package of accelerated measures and bring to the fore the focus on sustainability in the context of the criminal legal aid review’, and urgently look at the sustainability of the civil legal aid system.

These requests are additional to the Law Society’s main response to the review, in which it called for an increase in rates ‘across the board’, ‘a higher fee for sent cases’ and 100% payment for cracked trials.

‘As a result of the pandemic, work for criminal legal aid firms has fallen through the floor―leaving many hanging on for survival,’ said Simon Davis, Law Society president.

‘Without urgent intervention, there is danger that many more duty solicitor schemes will face imminent collapse. We have made clear since the start of the pandemic that criminal legal aid firms are facing a triple whammy: immediate cashflow problems, short to medium term permanent loss of income, and the pre-existing crisis of sustainability.

‘Unless the government addresses all three, there is a serious risk of widescale market collapse. The accelerated items proposed by government were already insufficient to match the scale of the problem – firms urgently need the funds originally promised, as well as additional support to meet the new crisis.’

Fees for defence practitioners have not increased in cash terms for 25 years. Fewer solicitors are choosing criminal law as a career, which could lead to long-term sustainability issues. Davis said many areas of the country have very few duty solicitors under the age of 35 years, and some duty schemes are unlikely to survive the year.