Criminal lawyers have failed in their court challenge against the Lord Chancellor’s decision to reduce the number of criminal legal aid contracts for police station duty work.
The London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association (LCCSA), Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association (CLSA) and a firm engaged in criminal legal aid work challenged the decision to shrink the contracts available from 1,800 to 527 and thereby consolidate the market. The Law Society brought a second challenge.
An earlier legal challenge against the same decision, on the basis of failure to include two expert reports, succeeded in stalling the process in November 2014. The latest challenge was on the grounds that the Lord Chancellor failed to consider the investment costs required by firms “scaling up” to accept the new contracts and failed to disclose a full version of the ministry’s economic model.
However, the court rejected these arguments.
Bill Waddington, chair of the CLSA, and Jonathan Black, president of the LCCSA, said: “The impact on many of our members if this tender process goes ahead will be devastating.
“Many firms have been considering their future in the new legal aid duty contracts market and cannot see a way forward.”
Both organisations and the Law Society plan to appeal.
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