Has Chancery Lane passed its sell-by date, asks Jon Robins
Michael Gove’s climb down over the bitter stand-off between his government and the legal aid profession provided a rare opportunity for uncomplicated delight for a beleaguered section of the profession. The Lord Chancellor unceremoniously ditched Chris Grayling’s tender plans for the duty contracts which would have threatened the livelihood of a large number of practitioners and put a second potentially devastating 8.75% fee cut on hold.
Emotions at Chancery Lane might be more complicated. In the eyes of the profession, it was a victory secured not by the profession’s main representative body but one that followed a campaign by the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association (LCCSA), the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association (CLSA) and the Justice Alliance, a relatively new body set up in immediately after the April 2013 legal aid cuts disemboweled civil legal aid.
Having seen the civil legal aid scheme butchered with seemingly little attempt to win over the hearts and minds of the Great British public, the Justice Alliance sprang into life.
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