Catch 22 : Solicitors : Legal Aid :

[Bogwhoppit]

A close friend of mine is currently locked into a child contact case . She is on legal aid and strongly suspects her solicitor has made a couple of major cockups which may have resulted in an interim order being issued that is not valid.

To find out if her solicitor has made any mistakes, she needs to get legal advice to confirm her suspicions. But because she has legal help, she cannot get advice. She has tried the law society, CAB and god knows how many other people, and none of them will offer advice because she already has a solicitor. Weird system or what !

No one ( not even the CLS ) can agree on the process for her to get rid of her current solicitor and change to a new one either. Meanwhile she is at court end of Feb.

It's scary that we now have a two tier legal system. If you are on low income and need defence in a criminal court, I don't fancy your chance's !

The government have really moved the goal posts for legal help.

[thomasross20]

Shit, sounds like a nightmare!!

[Bogwhoppit]

Originally Posted by thomasross20

Shit, sounds like a nightmare!!

Worse then that. A kids future is at stake.

Since last week over 90 Solicitors offices were contacted throughout the UK , all of them rejected help because A: The person already had legal council or B: They had no more funds left to take on new legal aid case's.

The third option is to ditch the solicitor and get her to defend herself, but no one will tell her the procedure to get rid of the existing solicitor. The courts have also suggested she could be held responsible for court costs if she does this.

So much for modern day Britain when you cant even have a basic right of defence in court.

[fretmeister]

Of course you have the basic right of defence - you can go to the library and look it up yourself.


Anyway - the way you get rid of yur solicitor is phone the SRA and make a complaint and ask for assistance in moving it.

BUT - no solicitor is forced to take on work - so you do have to find one.


The legal aid reforms have cut the budget so much that a huge amount of solicitors forms have closed their legal aid departments. The money offered at present only covers about 30% of the overheads for the work - and no company can afford to do that.



Also - you might want to try the Free Representation Unit.

They are pupil barristers, supervised by qualified barristers who take on cases that no-one else will.

But yet - there is always the risk of a costs award against you and the LSC won't pay it if you are not doing the work via them.