Family law firms can apply for interim legal aid contracts as of this week after the Legal Services Commission (LSC) opened its tender process
Firms have until 3 October to apply. The interim contracts replace the unified contract under which family legal aid firms currently deliver services, and are due to begin in February 2012, pending the introduction of the government’s legal aid reforms. In an open letter, Carolyn Downs, LSC chief executive, said the LSC had “worked hard to learn lessons” since the quashing of the family tender process last year by the high court following a judicial review brought by the Law Society. Downs said “all applicants who meet our mandatory requirements” would be awarded a contract, but that “our budget is not without limit – the impact of which is that some applicants may not receive all the work for which they bid”.
