Referring to the legal aid protest by lawyers in London on Monday and the outrageous response by a DCA 'spokeswoman' (interestingly not named) that the action was "unprofessional and irresponsible", the Editorial in this week's Gazette speculates "that the government must be slightly worried that the general public will be swayed from its normally anti-lawyer sentiments". Unfortunately, I fear that such speculation is somewhat premature, as I've just read this letter in the Guardian's letter column for the day after the protest:Our legal aid system is the most generous in the world. The best-paid legal aid lawyers make around £1m. How many nurses, teachers or doctors earn that?
Missing the point, of course, but it seems that we still have a long way to go before we get the general public on our side.
I know the author of said letter couldn't possibly be talking about me. I'm still shopping at Primark and wearing the same shoes I was 2 years ago. Unfortunately the public won't realise just exactly what they're losing until it's gone. When they find it impossible to find a Legal Aid lawyer to save their lives they'll change their tune. Of course then it's too late.
ReplyDeleteMy firm is signing the Unified Contract but frankly I think we're going to all wind up selling the Big Issue before long. :(
Says it all. Interesting that your firm is signing the contract. I'm not blaming them, but it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if all firms had refused to sign.
ReplyDeleteI agree it would be interesting to see what happened if everyone refused to sign but even if half of current contracted firms don't sign it's still going to send a pretty clear message. It was recently published that the amount of contracted firms has gone down since the 90's. At the moment there are only maybe 4 firms in our immediate region who offer Legal Aid on family cases. One of those firms the bulk of their work under Legal Aid is child care work. I don't know if the others are signing the contract. I think my firm will wind up doing Legal Aid until it goes down in flames. I've got my fireman's gear on now. Here's to hoping we don't get burned.
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