4 June 2013
Bill Waddington, director at Williamsons Solicitors and chair of the national Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association commented on the legal aid reform in the Yorkshire Post on June 1, 2013.
Bill said that the introduction of controversial reforms that aim to slice £220m from the £1.1bn criminal legal aid criminal legal aid portion of the legal aid bill, would “destroy” the criminal justice system.
He added: “The winning bidder will receive a fixed amount of money to provide services and there will be pressure to maximise profit by employing inexperienced lawyers.
“Only the most cut-throat firms will survive and these will be reduced to an astonishingly low number, eradicating small firms of lawyers who serve their local communities and understand the needs of clients, and instead creating huge, cost-driven, low quality firms.”
The Yorkshire Post reported that the number of firms representing legal aid cases fall from 1,600 to around 400 nationally, through a process of auction-style bidding for the work.
Read the full article online, or click on the image to the right to download a PDF.
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