CBA shown favour by Lord Chancellor over legal aid cuts

The chairman of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has been taken to task over comments made about direction action by barristers and solicitors against legal aid fee cuts.

As expected, yesterday's address from Tony Cross QC, in which he declared he would vote against the criminal Bar initiating a 'no returns' policy for legal aid work, have not been well received by the leaders of the solicitor profession.

In the latest war of words between the solicitors' groups and the CBA chief, the president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association (LCCSA), Jonathan Black, said that solicitors had not had the luxury of negotiating with the Lord Chancellor on the same level playing field that the CBA had enjoyed.

The BSB Solicitors' partner, who just last week was the recipient of the 'special award' at Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) for his continued opposition to government fee cuts for criminal defence firms, also disputed Cross's chronology and understanding of events in the lead up to the current strike action over dual contracts.

Black's full statement reads: 'I will say Tony has always been aware of the dual threat of fee cuts and two tiers, in fact, he himself, in response to Des Hudson's remarks on 1st October 2013, invited solicitors to pledge that they could not discharge their professional duty at 17.5 per cent reduced rates. This is the immediate threat that we face.

'Last time no returns commenced there was no ballot until the barristers' profession sought a say on the deal. In advocating the deal, Tony, pointed to the fact that solicitors had agreed to commence work under the first cut which came in on 20 March and that this was a reason for terminating no returns. We have invited the CBA to reinstate no returns many times since March 2014 and that request has been met with the question, "what are solicitors doing for themselves?"

'A ballot was conducted when it looked as though Labour might win the election; as the gamble did not pay off, the ballot was renamed a survey. Tony Cross needs to understand the chronology that we were litigating against dual contracts for nine months, followed by a purdah period which meant that there was no power of any government to act on the dual contracts in any event.

'We had hoped that Mr Gove would take a pragmatic position in respect of criminal legal aid, but sadly we did not have the level playing field with his office that our Mr Cross and his friends had. Solicitors, facing a ruinous cut followed by a killer blow of dual contracts are standing firm in their action, and the response is now that it "is not good enough".

'We have said this many times, the solicitors' organisations priority is to ensure that there is quality access to justice throughout the criminal justice system not just in the arena (Crown Court) where five per cent of cases take the majority of the fund. We would welcome an acknowledgment from Tony about the need for those clients that he may never encounter to have access to justice.'

John van der Luit-Drummond is deputy editor for Solicitors Journal
john.vanderluit@solicitorsjournal.co.uk | @JvdLD