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Legal aid solicitors cave in
ISLINGTON’S solicitors have bowed to government pressure by signing up to a contract reforming the legal aid system.
Almost every firm in the borough providing legal aid for civil matters, such as housing, immigration and claims against the police, has agreed to sign up to the Legal Services Commission’s (LSC’s) unified contract, which they claim gives less security to firms.
Sarah Beskine, of Hopkin Murray Beskine, in Fonthill Road, Finsbury, said: “It’s an appalling contract. There was a simple choice: you sign or you close. We’re feeling massively undervalued. The LSC should come to the office and tell us how to cut costs.
“People’s needs here are just so massive. Then we get these contracts through and you know you’re being asked to do the same amount of work for a lot less money.”
Holloway Road firm Burke Niazi, which specialises in mental health, family, housing and welfare benefits work, agreed to sign up to the contract in a letter hand-delivered to the LSC bearing the words “With a heavy heart”. The firm said it had agreed to the contract on the basis “that it is unlawful, which will no doubt be decided by the pending judicial review in due course”.
The letter added: “The approach taken by the Legal Services Commission to the genuine objections that have been raised by our professional body has been appalling.” |
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