News
Criminal legal aid lawyers making little profit
- 02nd December 2009
A recent report into criminal legal aid published by the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that legal aid lawyers are ready to walk in the face of a crumbling legal aid system, with 28% of firms unlikely to be undertaking legal aid work in five years’ time.
The NAO shows that the sustainability of the service and its value for money to the taxpayer is at risk with 16% of criminal legal aid firms making no profit, and 14% making just 1-5% profit. Partners are being effectively subsidized by firms’ more profitable work.
The report also says that the Legal Services Commission has little understanding of law firms and is wasting millions on unnecessary admininistration and overpaying lawyers. Richard Miller, legal aid manager at the Law Society, said in response to the report: “This report goes a long way in dispelling the belief that legal aid lawyers are profiteering from the system. Many of them are not even earning any income from the work they do at all. This is a picture of a supplier base on the point of crumbling into insolvency.
“It is those requiring access to justice who will lose out in the long run if there are not enough solicitors providing legal aid criminal defence services.”
-
