Family concern at single fee
A proposed single advocacy fee for barristers and solicitors in family cases would overpay less difficult cases and underpay more complex cases, barristers have warned.
The Bar Council and Family Law Bar Association oppose the Legal Service Commission’s scheme to roll up payments into a single fee, proposed in its consultation Family Legal Aid Funding from 2010.
Lucy Theis QC, Family Law Bar Association chair, said: “The Bar Council and FLBA have always supported the principle of the same pay for the same work, but these proposals do not achieve this, as they pay the same fee irrespective of the work undertaken. The result will be that less complex cases will be over remunerated and the most complex cases under paid.”
The consultation closes on 18 March 2009.
