Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/485/2368
From The Socialist newspaper, 3 May 2007
Oppose legal aid contracts tooth and nail
As a retired legal aid solicitor I would like to welcome John Greene's article [in issue 482] on the effect of the proposals contained in the Carter Review of Procurement of Legal Services. The methods of fee changes are bad enough. Even worse in both the short term and for the future are the market forces proposals involving solicitors in bidding for a chunk of 'market share'.
Peter Soar
These contracts will be exclusive - if you don't get one you cannot do legal aid work. Carter's deliberate policy is to reduce the number of high street firms doing legal aid. The Review argues that the excluded solicitors will be so envious of the lucky ones that they will combine in new firms and make mergers between existing firms.
This City language comes from Lord Carter of Coles who built up an empire in healthcare and then sold it and from his advisers who are all City men; merger specialists, equity financiers - and one solicitor. That one is the senior partner of one of the largest City firms.
One analyst, quoting the firm's own figures, says that the average share of profits for the partners is over £700,000 a year. That is more than the turnover of most high street firms.
In fact, the excluded solicitors will turn to the other work most of them do in their firms, most of which is seen as more profitable. There will be a sharp decline in the number of qualified lawyers in legal aid.
The threat from competitive contracting comes from the idea of creating and then protecting a market in legal services.
Police stations are seen as 'generating market share'. The main police stations will be at the centre of areas - lines drawn on the map - and a few approved solicitors in each area will be invited to bid for a contract. All the others will be out of legal aid work there and then.
The contracts will last only two or three years and will then have to be bid for again. The process of bidding and going through the necessary re-structuring of a firm will be expensive.
Particularly vulnerable will be the black, minority and ethnic firms which by definition are small and cater for clients who are in most need. There will be a pronounced reduction in access and choice and a temptation to lower standards.
As legal aid contracts will be expensive to win and short term, solicitors will be more dependent on the government and less inclined to tackle difficult and controversial cases. Seen against government measures to make the job of the defence in the courts more difficult and to impose restrictive laws in relation to freedom of movement and immigration, these measures on legal aid are the other side of a dirty coin.
John Greene is right; Carter should be opposed tooth and nail.
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In The Socialist 3 May 2007:
2007 election analysis: Time for a new workers' party
Scottish Elections: Labour rocked as SNP wins
Socialist Party election campaign
NHS cuts... privatisation... widening wealth gap
Campaign for a New Workers' Party conference
Socialist Party NHS campaign
NHS: A matter of life and death in Swansea
Socialist Party workplace news
PCS: Fighting for jobs, pay and services
Socialist Party editorial
Widening wealth gap needs working-class response
Socialist Party election campaign
Packed election rally for Scotland's Solidarity
Irish election - Socialist Party takes on the establishment
New Labour panics and resorts to lies
Yorkshire ISR and Socialist Students day of action
Global Warming
Alternative energy: Winds of change?
Education
Socialist Students
Seattle students walkout against the Iraq war
Pressure mounts for troops withdrawal
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Russia April 1917: Lenin returns from exile
Comment
Women must have the right to choose!
Socialist Party news and analysis
What 'public-private partnerships really mean
Oppose legal aid contracts tooth and nail
Socialist Party workplace news
Remember the dead but fight for the living
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