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The exclusive Panel of solicitors and the Panel of barristers who will be given priority in bidding for defence work in very high cost criminal cases (generally, those where the trial is expected to last for 41 days or more) have been launched by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) today. Advocates on the Very High Cost Case Panel will be able to bid to undertake some of the most high profile and highest paid criminal cases.

To ensure best quality and best value for the most expensive criminal legal aid cases, the LSC ran a tender in 2007 where teams of solicitors’ firms and barristers that could undertake this type of work were asked to bid to be on the Panel. After that bid round, which assessed the experience of the legal teams as well as the pay rates they tendered, the LSC offered contracts to 330 solicitor firms and 2,300 barristers.

However, a low number of barristers signed contracts following their bids. As a result, the LSC has issued amended contracts which allow for the instruction of non-Panel Advocates if no Panel Advocate is available. The Ministry of Justice has issued an amended Funding Order that will enable this to happen. 

The Funding Order has been laid before Parliament today and is due to come into effect on 24 April 2008. Solicitors’ firms will negotiate directly with non-Panel Advocates to set their fees. The LSC will pay for non-panel advocacy services at the same rates as those finalised in the tender process.

David Keegan, the Legal Services Commission’s Director of High Cost Case Contracting, said:

“The total number of advocates who have accepted the new contracts has risen from 156 to 203.  The number of solicitor firms has risen from around 300 to 326.

“More solicitor advocates in particular will now have a chance to take on high cost criminal work. The number of solicitor advocates who have accepted our contracts has risen from 26 to 93.”
 
David Keegan continued:

“The LSC expects that barristers who did not sign contracts will nonetheless regard the opportunity of taking on individual contracts for work totaling £50m as very worthwhile.”

The creation of the Very High Cost Case Panel stems from Lord Carter’s review of legal aid procurement, which aimed to make the future of legal aid in England and Wales more sustainable. The Bar supported taking money out of the highest paying cases and putting it into the lowest paying cases.

This enabled Lord Carter to recommend increasing the amount paid under the Graduated Fees Scheme, particularly in shorter cases, to benefit the junior Bar. The Bar understands that Legal Aid funding operates within a fixed budget and that increases in one area have to be paid for from others.
 
An additional £29m has gone into graduated fees. Savings from VHCCs (from barristers) are expected to be approximately £5m.

Media information

Dan Kellingley   Tel: 020 7759 0415

Notes to editors

1. VHCC are the most complex and expensive cases, usually taking months to reach court. Details of the Very High Cost Case Panel members can be found on the LSC’s website.
2. Under the new scheme for preparation work a QC’s fees will range from £91 to £145 an hour. For a leading junior, the range is £79 to £127 an hour. A junior acting alone will receive between £70 and £100 an hour.
3. While for time spent in court, a QC will get £476 a day, a leading junior will get £390 and a junior acting alone £285.
4. Last year there were about 400 defendants funded by legal aid in 100 VHCC criminal cases. Defence teams are typically paid around £400,000 for such cases but costs in some, such as the Jubilee Line Fraud case, have run into several millions.
5. To put this in context, last year the LSC funded advice and representation for nearly 1.6m defendants. About 120,000 of these were in Crown Court cases.
6. The cost of VHCC cases was approximately 9% of the criminal legal aid budget. VHCC Crime expenditure was £105m out of total legal aid expenditure of £1.2bn for criminal representation.
7. The Criminal Defence Service (Funding) Order 2007 (made under the Access to Justice Act 1999) makes provision for the funding and remuneration of services provided as part of the Criminal Defence Service.  The Lord Chancellor is required to consult the General Council of the Bar and the Law Society before making or amending a Funding Order in accordance with section 25(2) of the Access to Justice Act.