LSC Contract Published - What Now?

Unified legal aid contract: what should you do now?

The LSC has published the final version of the unified legal aid contract, taking effect for civil legal aid practitioners in April 2007 and criminal legal aid practitioners in April 2008. Our vigorous campaign to amend the contract has led to some small changes in the final version that improve it to an extent. But the contract still needs significant and fundamental revision to protect your interests as solicitors. This view is based on legal advice from our solicitors, Bircham Dyson Bell.

Practitioners must now decide whether to sign the contract. To give you the information you need, we've today published a detailed guide to the contract, prepared by our solicitors. We urge you to read it carefully to be aware of the legal advice we've received and our consequent concerns. This contract moves the balance of power in favour of the LSC to a disturbing extent, whilst the government is pushing through legal aid changes that could lead to mass closure of legal aid firms.

The Society is organising regional meetings in association with key practitioner groups, where you can receive advice directly from our lawyers on the likely impact of the contract. Details will follow in the next few days. You may consider it helpful to defer signing the contract pending attendance at one of those meetings. It might also consider whether you should seek to renegotiate amendments with the LSC. We will continue to press the LSC to reconsider its position.

Read the detailed guide to the unified contract (PDF, 110kb)
Read a summary of our policy and lobbying so far (PDF, 40kb)
Read the new contract