High Court rules family legal aid tender unlawful

The High Court has ruled that the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) recent tender of family legal aid contracts was unlawful, describing the process, which cut the number of law firms able to provide legal aid for family cases from 2400 to 1300, as “irrational and unfair”.

The judicial review of the tender was brought by the Law Society, which argued that the sharp fall in the number of contracts would lead to “legal aid deserts” in some parts of the country and that a large number of experienced family law practitioners would become unavailable to vulnerable members of the public.

When permission was granted to take the matter to judicial review earlier this month, the LSC delayed the implementation of the new contracts to 15th November, extending the validity of existing contracts.

The LSC said that it would consider the detail of the judgment before deciding whether to appeal and said that it would provide further information on the impact of the decision on tenders (and appeals) “in due course”.

Law Society president Linda Lee described the decision as “a victory for the thousands of families who would have been left without access to legal assistance when faced with state intervention in their family or the consequences of the breakdown of a relationship”.

She added: “The failure of the LSC to anticipate, let alone manage, the outcome of the process was the latest and perhaps most alarming of the LSC's apparently haphazard attempts to reshape legal aid. We are extremely disappointed to have been left with no choice but to take legal action against the LSC, which refused to acknowledge the detrimental effect that this outcome would have on families.”