You will have great difficulty in finding any support among the criminal defence fraternity for the changes currently being introduced by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) following Lord Carter’s review of legal aid procurement.
The public funding body would contend that the quest for efficiency, best value and quality control within a steady and controllable market is long overdue and a desirable target for the state acting on behalf of the taxpayer. Further, cost reductions and the tightest of projected profit margins must be accepted by defence practitioners as the logical repercussion of spiralling costs in previous years. While defence lawyers have long since accepted that the receipt of public money carries with it an audit culture and constant monitoring and supervision, the Carter Review and its implementation has been widely perceived as more than regulation – it approaches denigration.
