One law for them...

Yesterday the Legal Aid Practitioners Group issued a press release challenging the Solicitor-General over "value for money" for legal services (see http://www.lapg.co.uk/press.cfm?press_id=219). Recently, the Solicitor-General asserted that we get value for money from the Treasury Solicitors Department, which charges "about £134 per hour", at a time when the Government is (yet again) demanding better value for money from legal aid lawyers, who get paid £50 to £60 per hour, regardless of seniority. You have to laugh...unless you are a legal aid lawyer. Not only do they get paid a fraction of what they can charge for privately-funded work, but they also have to deal with an ever-increasing bureaucracy for the privilege. Unsurprisingly, more and more solicitors are choosing to vote with their feet and give up offering a legal aid service. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for members of the public to find legal aid solicitors, and when they do, they often have to wait weeks to be seen. Along with the recent increases in court fees (referred to by me in previous posts), this is another reason why the less well-off in our society are finding it harder and harder to have access to justice. You have to ask: what rights do you have if you can't enforce them?