Lord Carter’s recently published Review of Legal Aid Procurement produced a considerable response from legal aid practitioners and those involved in the legal aid world. It generated little interest elsewhere in the legal profession, where it is generally presumed that legal aid and commercial practices are worlds apart.
There is, however, one key area where these worlds come together – quality. Lord Carter’s report is entitled “A market-based approach to reform”. Many commentators have wrongly assumed that the key to this market is pricing. In fact, the key to any market that does not deal in commodities is quality. Unless there are clear benchmarks for quality and transparent means of judging quality, pricing is meaningless.
