Family solicitors are currently picking themselves up and dusting themselves down after an extremely stressful summer.

This was the summer in which all firms who held an existing Family contract to do Legal Aid work had to put in bids to carry on doing the same work.

Kirwans was successful in this respect and will have new Legal Aid contracts for Family work in our Prenton and Moreton offices and will be able to continue to serve the needs of our clients who qualify for public funding.

Elsewhere, the situation is not as good and it has been reported that a staggering 46 per cent of those who bid for Family Legal Aid contracts have been unsuccessful.

This means many other firms are facing a bleak future and looking at reducing their departments or closing altogether, including some very established names that have been part of the legal landscape for decades.

Although the exercise is being presented as a reduction in order to increase quality, all firms currently carrying out Legal Aid work have already met the Legal Services Commission’s quality standards.

The reality is that this is an administrative reduction in the number of contracts, and will mean that in October this year longstanding clients who seek to return to some firms will find that there is no longer anyone there who is able assist them and they will have to look elsewhere, perhaps not even in the same town in which they live.

Sadly, there are many experienced Family lawyers who have been fully committed to Legal Aid work for many years who now find themselves facing redundancy this year.

Looking for public sympathy for lawyers is usually a lost cause, but we are not looking at “fat cats”, but those who have long accepted that a commitment to Legal Aid necessarily involves reduced income for their firms. The results of this bidding exercise may not be felt by members of the public right now but it will be clear later this year that client choice is being significantly reduced.

Paul Hunt can be contacted on 0151 608 9078 or by visiting the Kirwans office in 363 Woodchurch Road