Press Releases pre-May 2010

Criminal Defence Service Direct (CDS Direct) will mark its second birthday by expanding. The expansion will enable CDS Direct to take over ‘own client’ telephone work in three areas of England. After a competitive tender, the Johnson Partnership Solicitors, O’Garra’s Solicitors and Bostalls were awarded three year contracts to operate the expanded service today.

Starting on 1 October, all calls for legal aid assistance at police stations will be routed through a single number to the Defence Solicitor Call Centre (DSCC).  From 31 October 2007, in Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire criminal justice areas, the DSCC will forward all cases to CDS Direct where someone is accused of a minor offence.

CDS Direct has been operating nationally for duty solicitor work since 31 October 2005, making use of modern technology by providing advice for less serious offences over the telephone. It is intended that, starting with these three areas, CDS Direct will eventually expand to become the sole service provider for all less serious offences where clients receive telephone advice at police stations which is paid for by legal aid.

It is estimated that the take over of ‘own client’ work nationally by CDS Direct will save £4million a year in addition to the £4million the service is already saving. This will be achieved by taking advantage of greater economies of scale produced by the pooling of work in a smaller number of organisations. The money saved will be reinvested in the legal aid scheme to enable more people to get help.

The expanded DSCC will also provide the Legal Services Commission (LSC) with information on requests for police station advice, as it continues to develop services for clients. This will enable the LSC to work with the police to bring about improvements in the wider criminal justice system.

John Sirodcar, Head of Direct Services at the Legal Services Commission said: “I welcome the opportunity to work with these three high quality criminal defence service providers. Helping clients in this way will ensure they are not detained unnecessarily, reduce the burden on criminal defence solicitors and provide better value for money to taxpayers.

“The Legal Services Commission will monitor the service and work in partnership with the firms to refine it before rolling CDS Direct out to replace own client telephone work across England and Wales in early 2008.”

The Johnson Partnership, based in Nottingham, has been carrying out criminal legal aid work since 1990 and currently has almost 50 accredited representatives, qualified solicitors and duty solicitors.

O’Garra’s, based in Leeds, have been undertaking criminal legal aid work since 2000. In addition they carry out private client work in the areas of business, civil litigation, consumer, family, fraud, insurance and personal injury.

Bostalls are a police station representative agency, formed in 1985 and currently have over 50 accredited representatives in London and the surrounding area. They have been providing staff for CDS Direct since the service was first piloted.

Both the Johnson Partnership and O’Garra’s have been evaluated by external peer reviews and have been placed in the second highest category - competence plus. Bostalls advisers have been continuously assessed during the course of the CDS pilot, with a recent internal peer review rating CDS Direct advisers as competence plus.

Media information

Dan Kellingley  Tel: 020 7759 0415

Notes to editors

1. Duty solicitor work is defined by a member of the public making use of the right to free and independent legal advice in the police station but expressing no preference as to which solicitor should advise him/her.

2. Own client work refers to situations where a client requests the services of a specific solicitor or solicitors’ firm paid for by legal aid.

3. Less serious offences include: driving with excess alcohol and failure to give a specimen and non-imprisonable offences such as fare evasion.

4. The response to the original consultation on the expansion of the Duty Solicitor Call Centre and CDS Direct is available on the LSC website at www.legalservices.gov.uk (CDS > Consultations > Recent Consultations > Duty Solicitor Call Centre and CDS Direct).