100% Law Society victory on unified contract for legal aid practitioners: LSC refused permission to appeal to Lords

Thursday 29 November 2007

The Law Society's challenge of the Legal Services Commission [LSC] was wholly upheld today when judgment on the unified contract was handed down by Lord Justice Lawrence Collins on behalf of the Court of Appeal.

In a total victory for the Law Society, and its members, the LSC has now lost the power unilaterally to amend the unified contract in the extreme way it proposed. The court upheld the Law Society’s appeal and rejected the LSC’s appeal, with the result that the decision is now 100% in favour of the Society.  The LSC was refused permission to appeal to the House of Lords and ordered to pay Law Society’s costs.

The strength of the language given in the judgement left no stone unturned. 

The high-powered court comprising the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justice Wall and Lord Justice Lawrence Collins emphasised three times that this case was extreme and said that “The power to amend (in this contract) is better characterised as a power to rewrite the contract.”  [para 86 of the judgment]

Des Hudson, Law Society Chief Executive, says: “The LSC's right to unilaterally amend the unified contract is severely curtailed, if not destroyed.  We are urgently consulting counsel to determine the precise practical ramifications for our members and our ongoing strategy.”

“What is not in doubt is that the LSC needs to re-think urgently the general criminal contract and VHCC contract, both due to come in Jan 2008.“

"It's a shame that this has taken a year and huge sums of public money to resolve, money that should be used to increase access to justice. The judgment is a total vindication of our What Price Justice? campaign, and our strategy of holding the LSC to account. We yet again urge the Government to work with us to try to find a way forward that is both lawful and economically sensible."

“The Law Society is not opposed to sustainable reform of legal aid but rather to the way it has been introduced by the LSC. It is a shame that we have had to resort to the courts to address this. We hope that the LSC and Government will now work with us to secure a sustainable future for access to justice through an extensive supplier base of dedicated professionals."