Family

October 2009 New family legal aid fixed fees

In October, the Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Commission amended their plans for family legal aid following responses to their recent consultation. The LSC received 1,491 responses, of which over 800 were individual barristers to the consultation “Family Legal Aid Funding from 2010” that focused on the Private Family Law Representation Scheme and Family Advocacy Scheme. In a summary of responses the LSC admitted that:

“that there is a considerable depth of feeling in relation to the proposals and great concern over their potential impact on family providers undertaking legally aided work and on the Family Justice System”

A key theme running through responses was that “the fee levels had been set too low and that they would not be prepared to work at these rates.”

As a result, several changes to the original proposals have been made, including:

in family advocacy, fixed fee schemes will be introduced for both public and private law but these will be time based rather than on a per hearing basis and preparation payments will be available to both barristers and solicitor advocates;

standard fees will still be introduced for private law representation but with additional levels for preparation for a final hearing and for the final hearing itself;

independent social work will not be removed from scope in private law cases, as was initially proposed, though rates will be capped at those paid by CAFCASS.

However, David Emmerson, Chair of Resolution’s Legal Aid Committee has warned:

“The potential of these new fees to cause substantial and long term damage to the provision of family legal aid for separating families has been grossly underestimated,”
“Some of these fees represent a cut of more than 40 percent to hourly rates that have already remained static for the last ten years. Faced with this uneconomic scenario there is a very real danger that firms will walk away from legal aid work, further undermining access to justice.”

The number of family legal aid practices in the country has dramatically dropped, from 4,500 in 2000 to 2,800 in 2006.

The schemes will be implemented from October 2010.

LSC Consutation: LSC Family Legal Aid Funding From 2010 Consultation.pdf
LSC Response: LSC Family Legal Aid 21.10.09.pdf

Press Notice: MoJ Press Release 21.10.09.doc
Ministerial Statement: Written Ministerial Statement from Bridget Prentice.doc

Link: Legal Services Commission

Comments from Resolution: Resolution 21.10.09.doc