Civic
Although more than 400 firms have bid to undertake civil legal aid work in a recent Legal Services Commission (LSC) tender, the number of civil legal aid providers is likely to fall, according to legal aid experts.
Stephen Hynes, director of the access to justice charity Legal Action Group (LAG), admits to being surprised by the large number of bids the LSC has received, but says that past experience shows that firms in a recession will look to diversify into legal aid work.
“We are aware that many firms and not for profit organisations are having difficulty making the fixed fees introduced last year pay and the total number of providers has fallen,” he says. “Figures released by the LSC show that over half of their not-for-profit suppliers have had their contracts cut. Equally we know that many firms and not for profit organisations have adjusted what work they undertake on cases to make the fixed fees scheme pay.
“It seems what the LSC is increasingly ‘buying’ is many one-off pieces of advice at the cost of detailed case work. This is very good for meeting government targets, but noone is too sure of what use this is to clients.”
