News
The government’s controversial plans for legal aid were unanimously rejected by around 400 solicitors at a specially convened Law Society Special General Meeting (SGM) in Chancery Lane last week.
The mostly legal aid practitioners gave their overwhelming support to a motion tabled last year by Roger Peach, a solicitor at Southampton law firm Peach Grey & Co.
The motion calls for solicitors to knock back the government’s plans to introduce competitive tendering between firms and the awarding of fixed-length contracts for legal aid work. It also urges the Law Society to renegotiate terms for criminal defence contracts.
Andrew Holroyd, Law Society vice president, says: “The SGM highlights the strength of feeling among solicitors about the current legal aid reforms. The Law Society wants the same result as all the solicitors who attended the meeting—to secure a sustainable future for legal aid and to protect vulnerable clients. We continue to lobby intensively to secure a viable future for legal aid.”
Holroyd and Law Society chief executive Des Hudson, giving evidence on the reforms to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee last week, said the proposals threaten access to justice by damaging the legal aid supplier base.
