Re: Lawyers 'exploit' legal aid cash

On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:48:53 GMT, "aaa" <xxx@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Richard Miller wrote:

In message <GoAGm.3669$Ah3.2885@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Mentalguy2k8
<Mentalguy2k8@xxxxxxxxx> writes

"Nigel Oldfield" <wmcriticalestoppel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:2e635db0-3eb1-48a1-bb01-f28e5d8615b4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
..>.
Page last updated at 22:07 GMT, Thursday, 29 October 2009

Lawyers 'exploit' legal aid cash

Some lawyers took advantage of legal aid, the report says......

before going on to report that the Pope is still Catholic!

The report is false in some fundamental particulars, and the press
reporting around it is even more false.

It states that lawyers are claiming for acting for defendants in the
Magistrates Court who are not eligible for legal aid.

Lawyers cannot act in the Magistrates Court until the Government has
signed off that the client is eligible. After I read that allegation
of claims for ineligible Magistrates Court clients, the report lost
every last shred of credibility in my eyes.

The report questions whether there are sanctions against
overclaiming. I would have said the threat of being struck off is
damned powerful sanction. That kind of ignorance on the part of the
report writer is difficult to excuse.

It relies on audits of files by people whose ability to conduct such
audits is completely unknown. My personal experience of the Legal
Services Commission's audits is that they are of remarkably poor
quality in favour of finding technical reasons for disallowing
claims, with many of the outcomes being overturned on appeal. I
expect most of the NAO's assessments would have been overturned on
appeal if there had been a chance to see what they had done. But
there has been no quality control of their audits. Quis custodet
custodies?

The report does not say, as alleged in the press, that lawyers have
been claiming for ineligible clients. It says that the Legal Services
Commission has failed in its obligation to the taxpayer to assure
itself sufficiently that solicitors' claims are for eligible clients.
But you would never know that from the press comment.

Moreover, the system is so complex that honest errors in claiming are
inevitable. The rulebook under which solicitors operate runs to four
arch lever files. Because the system has been messed around so much,
solicitors are actually operating on four different systems in some
fields of law, and dozens of different hourly rates, some varying by
only a few pennies. The simple fact is that if you have a million
rules, you will be easily able to find a million technical breaches.
The Commission can't afford to administer a system as complex as the
one they have created, and have repeatedly been advised to simplify
it, and to run the system as a whole rather than every individual
case within it. The National Audit Office, for all its uninformed and
unjustified comments, rightly identifies this as a problem. It
remains to be seen if the Government listens.

I am surprised that a public body can issue a report that makes
serious allegations of dishonesty against a profession, without
inviting the professional body representing that profession to
comment on the findings before publication. I guess I shouldn't be.
Following a fair process and getting to the truth has always taken a
back seat to another round of bashing legal aid lawyers.

Do you earn a living from legal aid?

Legal aid (like most forms of socialism) just create dependency and
cause much harm. Yes the unemployeed can get help, but at the expense
of the low paid who get no help, because they have a small income but
still cannot afford lawyer fees.

Abolish legal aid and almost everyone would be better off (except a few
lawyers)

So next time you annoy your next door neighbour and he can't afford to
take you to court you will be happy with the petrol bomb that comes
through your window?
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Lawyers exploit legal aid cash
    ... The report is false in some fundamental particulars, ... Lawyers cannot act in the Magistrates Court until the Government ... Legal>> Services Commission's audits is that they are of remarkably ... Do you earn a living from legal aid? ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Legal aid failure
    ... million of his assets confiscated because no legal aid barrister would ... Unfortunately he never returned to report the result ... I am appalled that we have reached a point where a defendant in a POCA confiscation hearing (who has to have Legal Aid because he is not allowed to use his own funds to pay for lawyers) is left unrepresented because the money on offer is so poor. ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Legal aid failure
    ... million of his assets confiscated because no legal aid barrister would ... Unfortunately he never returned to report the result ... A good example of the wholly inadequate rates of pay in criminal legal aid ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Lawyers exploit legal aid cash
    ... The report is false in some fundamental particulars, and the press reporting around it is even more false. ... After I read that allegation of claims for ineligible Magistrates Court clients, the report lost every last shred of credibility in my eyes. ... It relies on audits of files by people whose ability to conduct such audits is completely unknown. ... Following a fair process and getting to the truth has always taken a back seat to another round of bashing legal aid lawyers. ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Lawyers exploit legal aid cash
    ... The report is false in some fundamental particulars, ... It states that lawyers are claiming for acting for defendants in the ... Magistrates Court who are not eligible for legal aid. ... It relies on audits of files by people whose ability to conduct such ...
    (uk.legal)