Exclusive: Leading criminal legal aid firm to sidestep chambers

One of the UK's largest criminal legal aid firms will bypass barristers chambers by instructing independent advocates for magistrates' hearings, and crown court appearances.

Tuckers Solicitors, based in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, which, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures, earned the most from publicly-funded criminal cases in 2011/12 with £8.27m in fees, is to offer a new online product aimed at enhancing greater integration between law firms and advocates at the expense of chambers.

The move comes less than a week after the Criminal Bar Association's (CBA) executive committee declared it would not join in proposed industrial action against government plans to implement a second 8.75 per cent fee cut to legal aid solicitors.

The decision was widely criticised by junior members of the Bar who fear that the fee cut will force solicitors to retain their advocacy in-house, which would stymie the flow of instructions to chambers.

In 2014, Adam Makepeace, Tuckers' practice manager, questioned the chambers model and whether it should be relegated to the annals of history.

Now, a year on, Tuckers has developed the technology to implement a plan to bypass chambers completely - the public facing aspect of which is: www.crimediary.co.uk.

In an exclusive article for Solicitors Journal, Makepeace, writes: 'Over the last year, we have been working on both the technology and, more importantly, the relationships, to help find a way to deliver criminal defence advocacy more efficiently.

'By combining the diaries of multiple firms of solicitors (subject to appropriate regulatory checks and balances) onto a single database, we now have the ability to seek to instruct advocates to cover a list of hearings, rather than potentially being instructed on a single matter.'

Collaborative tool

Crime Diary is described as an online, collaborative tool that allows firms to access the availability of police station representatives, freelance advocates, or advocates from other firms of solicitors to represent clients.

Firms will be able to access police station representatives without the 'mark-up associated with traditional agencies' and generate additional revenue by providing agency work in the magistrates' and Crown Courts, where its advocates are already in attendance on other cases.

Speaking exclusively to SJ, Makepeace explained how his firm has created an electronic Chinese wall, so its diary can also be used by any other registered law firm, independent barrister, or virtual chambers.

'They're capable of running separate diaries but of course it's all sitting on the same database, so ultimately it's capable of being queried and being used to bring efficiency in the way we allocate attendances.'

Makepeace added: 'In terms of accessing trial advocates where people are still using the Bar, the possibility arises that you contract directly with the barrister, pay them the full fee, because you're not allowed to fee share, but you are allowed to charge them for services that you provide them, like clerking services.'

As Makepeace went on to explain, this is a way for solicitors to retain part of the advocate fee without having to employ higher court advocates (HCAs) on fixed salaries.

Increased interest

The interest in the technology has, according to Makepeace, grown exponentially. 'I've spent ages trying to get momentum around this thing, and now I've got the problem of having too many enquiries to deal with.'

Makepeace divulged to SJ that one major criminal firm has already signed up - although he was unable to reveal which at time - and he is confident that a further six or seven will follow suit before the end of September.

'Those are all pretty large firms,' he says, 'and I can get individuals on, barristers on, as they come. I'm talking about the North West, Yorkshire, London, so there's the potential to have national coverage,' he said.

No targets, however, have been set for new firms to join over the next 12 months. 'I don't know how many I want,' commented Makepeace. 'It may not be very sensible to take on 20 or 50 firms when ten firms can actually provide what you need.

'If I'm honest, it's not fully thought through, it's just that we know the direction of travel, we've put the technology in place, and now we're kind of being steered by events.'

Events, such as the CBA executive's decision not to take industrial action, despite calls from the junior Bar to take direction.

Controlling supply

'There's a clear indication that the position of the CBA doesn't reflect the position of its members,' said Makepeace. 'They're trying to protect the supply of work to the Bar, but they just fail to appreciate that we have control of the supply. So antagonising solicitors is not the way to obtain work. You have to work with the people who are supplying.'

As an example, Makepeace highlighted the tussle for power in the personal injury market.

'In 2000 the claims management companies took over because they had control of the supply of the work. Now, in this case, we have control of the supply. There's nothing the Bar can do… well, there is something they can do, they can bid for these two-tier contracts.'

He continued: 'If they went out and got the police station work, and the mags court work, and created the supply, or if they expand their direct access, those are all attempts to get hold of control of the supply. As long as we have control, taking steps to alienate us are counterproductive.'

Crime Diary is, at the moment, a free to use service, although, as Makepeace explained, there is a nominal £15 charge for firm integration.

'There is a charge for synchronisation with Microsoft Outlook. There's a third-party bit of software that runs a sync between the dashboard data and a particular firm's Microsoft exchange server so they can get it on Outlook, iPhones, Blackberries, and so on. We'll work out how we're going to make money out of it later.'

Attacking the Bar

With emotions running high since the CBA's controversial decision, Makepeace expects a hostile reaction from the Bar. However, those barristers that do believe they are being unfairly targeted with Crime Diary will, he said, have missed the point.

'This is not an attack on barristers. In the 24 hours since the Bar's announcement, I've seen round-robin emails from firms of solicitors saying: "Are there any HCAs out there? I'm only prepared to instruct HCAs for trials going forward," or all the stuff on Twitter saying, "I'm not using the Bar again".

'Actually, what I'm proposing isn't an attack on the Bar, it's just a different version of chambers, and actually my proposal is much more friendly to barristers, than a lot of stuff that is circulating at the moment. However, whether it's perceived that way is a completely different matter.'

Tuckers' practice manager does not believe that the launch of Crime Diary will widen the divide between the professions, especially among those junior barristers who have vociferously supported their solicitor counterparts.

'I think it's a lot about the perception of this product, because it can be misinterpreted,' he said. 'In the article I say to the junior Bar, "Come to us". Get out of chambers, because that's not where your work comes from. The quicker barristers realise they need direct relationships with solicitors, the more likely the independent barristers are to survive.

However, Makepeace said that the longer that realisation takes, the more likely firms will employ their own HCAs which will lead to the supply of work to barristers drying up.

'It will be a real shame if people see this as an attack on the bar,' he added. 'I'll just be going, "What's the point? I'm trying to save you".'

 

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