Charge
Barristers should charge fixed fees, says Bar chairman
Geoffrey Vos, QC, will today lay out his vision for the future of justice to the Conservative Party conference.
Barristers must move away from the old system of being paid by the hour to fixed fees, the Bar chairman will say today.
Outlining his vision for the future of the justice system, Geoffrey Vos, QC, will say that barristers must accept a system of fixed fees per case.
That is particularly so with the very high cost trials which consume a disproportionate share of the £2 billion legal aid budget, he will say.
His comments will be made at a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool today held with the Society of Conservative Lawyers.
Mr Vos will say: “In all areas, not least in very high cost cases, we must move away from an hourly rate of pay, and instead, pay by the case, with a properly graduated fees system."
His comments are a clear signal that the Bar accepts that the days of barristers earning £1 million from a legal aid case are over.
But Mr Vos will say that the Bar did have concerns about another ongoing legal aid reform - the move towards competitive tendering for legal aid contracts.
These plans by the Legal Services Commission for price-based competitive tendering include the idea of single fee to cover litigators’ and advocates’ work in the Crown Court.
“The plan would reduce the quality of advocacy available to the public, and would cost more as a result of less efficiently conducted cases increasing the length of cases and proliferating court and judge costs,” Mr Vos will argue.
He will urge the Government to rethink its proposals, so as to preserve the quality of the justice system for the benefit of the public.
“Lawyers provide a crucial public service. Publicly funded legal services are no less important to the community than publicly funded health and education services. It is time to acknowledge the importance of the legal service and the protection of liberty that it offers.
There is a danger, he will say, that lawyers would be deterred from or driven out of legal aid work.
“Our principal concern is to ensure, in the public interest, that high quality barristers and solicitors are attracted into publicly funded work and that schemes are designed which reward talent and efficiency, ensure the vulnerable are not under-represented, whilst keeping overall costs under control.
On the issue of constitutional reform Mr Vos will say that the Bar was setting up working parties to look into the issues raised by Gordon Brown’s Governance of Britain Green Paper and “looks forward to a healthy dialogue with Government.”
He will add that it is crucial to the Bar’s future role in the justice system that it becomes more representative of the community it served.
“We are working exceptionally hard on access and diversity issues, which we believe are vital, if barristers are to continue to provide services to the public of the highest quality.”
(Published by Times Online, October 2, 2007)
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