Call made to increase legal aid fees

Press, 11 June 1984, Page 6

Call made to increase legal aid fees

PA Hamilton Justice would be given if legal aid fees for duty solicitors were increased to a decent level, said the Law Society’s president, Mr Bruce Slane. The small number of lawyers who took on the large proportion of legal aid cases in court were being discriminated against, he said. “It is very serious because the pistol isn’t being held at the Justice Minister’s head. The simple fact is that the overheads are taking 50 to 60 per cent of the fees we earn ... and the scales are so outdated that we now have a return (on legal aid fees), of something less than 25 per cent of

what independent assessments show is a fair fee,” he said. A working party in 1982 suggested that fees should be tripled but nothing had happened. The Government would not deal fairly with the situation because of the wage and price freeze, Mr Slane said. The Government appeared to be the only body still paying people to work for it at the 1978 rates of pay. Members of the society would meet the Minister next month on legal aid proposals. Some of these included contributions from the aided client (similar to civil legal aid) and arrangements that allowed clients to choose their duty solicitors.

The society was also examining the need for lawyers to advertise their services individually or in groups. This would make it easier for a young lawyer to build up expertise in certain fields and also help clients who were often forced to hunt through many firms to find the needed expertise. A decision had also been made to drop the graduated scale for conveyancing which would leave lawyers free to decide what to charge. This would make firms more efficiently competitive and allow clients to shop around. The result could be less cost for simpler routine transactions, with job fees related rather than gauged by fixed rates.