ONE of Liverpool’s top family law teams has spoken out at reforms to legal aid that they say will badly affect the running of family courts.
Proposals to cut fees will have experienced solicitors and barristers refusing to work in family courts – and could result in the closure of family law firms, they say.
According to the Ministry of Justice, who conducted a comprehensive consultation with professionals, hourly rates under legal aid will be replaced with standard fees, with the aim of ensuring that both barristers and solicitor advocates will receive the same rate for the same advocacy work.
It is a move that has already been strongly criticised by family lawyers.
John Hugman, consultant solicitor at Morecrofts, has 30 years of experience practising in the field of family law.
He said: “Lord Bach, the Legal Aid Minister, says that legal aid funding is an essential service supporting some of the most vulnerable members of society.
“It is impossible to see how removing funding from those who have the experience to provide that service can enable them to support the vulnerable people for whom the legal aid system was designed.
“The President of the Family Division, Sir Mark Potter, has made the point that, if representation is not available to more and more people, the result is bound to be that the courts will have an ever greater backlog, leading to delays.”
The changes are expected to affect up to 50% of paid-for family legal aid work.
But the Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Commission say the proposals will protect vulnerable clients.
Carolyn Regan, Chief Executive of the LSC, said: “We listened carefully to solicitors and barristers during the consultation. We agree with their view that they should be paid equally for equal work and that vulnerable clients must be protected.
“'The changes we are making achieve both these goals. They will safeguard high-quality family law services for children and other vulnerable clients by controlling future growth in costs that would otherwise put all services at risk. They will ensure fairness so that all advocates will be paid the same for doing the same challenging work.
“The LSC will shortly publish the response and impact assessment on their website, and we plan to introduce the new schemes in the new civil contracts in October, 2010.”
