Lawyers warn Legal Aid changes will hit poor (From The Oxford Times)

Lawyers warn Legal Aid changes will hit poor

4:10pm Saturday 31st July 2010 in

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PEOPLE on low incomes and benefits will be left without access to solicitors after the last law firm in South Oxfordshire accepting Legal Aid cases failed to win a contract.

Lawyers at Radcliffe Duce & Gammer’s Wallingford office, which is the only Legal Aid practice between Oxford and Reading, have not been awarded a contract to continue the service from October.

They say the decision by the Legal Services Commission will leave some of the poorest people in Wallingford, Didcot and surrounding villages without legal representation in family courts.

Legal Aid funds legal advice for people otherwise unable to pay solicitors, such as people on benefits or with low incomes.

In a reorganisation of the system, the commission asked law firms to tender for a limited number of Legal Aid contracts in each county, awarding them on a points-based system (see panel, below left).

Lawyers at the 115-year-old firm said the process favoured big offices in cities, leaving local practices with fewer lawyers unable to compete.

Partner Sarah Benfield said: “Most of our legal clients are likely to be on benefits or on very low incomes.

“They have got themselves in a mess and cannot afford to get out of it without Legal Aid.

“They will not be able to afford the travel expenses to go to Oxford or Reading every week to see their solicitor. People with disabilities may not be able to travel there at all.

“Say you have a battered wife, who is able to get to a local firm relatively easily. Are they really going to be able to take a bus to Oxford or Reading to go to see a solicitor?”

She said the decision threatened the future of the High Street office.

And solicitor Carolyn Davies said the decision targeted the weakest people in society.

She said the firm already had to turn away people needing Legal Aid help, and the ruling had penalised the firm because, unlike many of its rivals, it still maintained a branch office to serve the local community.

The firm has two weeks to appeal against the ruling, and has received the backing of the Citizens Advice Bureau and local MP Ed Vaizey.

And the Law Society has urged the Ministry of Justice to review the “extremely disturbing” results of the process.

Legal Services Commission spokesman Richard Shand said “stringent” quality assessments had been used to award contracts, and the process had been open and transparent.

He said the commision believed clients’ needs could still be met, and that people needing Legal Aid solicitors could use the commission's website or the Community Legal Advice helpline on 0845 345 4345.