Yesterday afternoon turned into a very depressing massacre of the family legal aid supply base. A constant flow of longstanding, and mainly locally significant firms, staring down their last few months of publicly funded practice.
The perversity of many of the outcomes are striking too; a sole practitioner with hastily “recruited” panel accredited consultants, on short hours, carrying off sackfuls of NMSs from failed larger suppliers with the wherewithal to actually deliver them, being just one.
I will spare you my personal views right now and cut to the chase.
If you want our advice on appeal PLEASE DO NOT RING. Rather send an E-mail with the subject Family Appeal and containing your login details. If you can attach your notification letter this saves us valuable time. We will contact you back asap but it might not be until after the weekend.
Right now appeals seem to be breaking down into three groups
Substantive – mis-marking of selection criteria, especially regarding panel memberships
Generic – general complaints about the irrationality of the process and its outcome
Other firm reps – complaints that the process has been compromised by inaccurate bids from other firms.
We are helping with the first – though the basic advice is get proof from TLS or Resolution. We hope, in concert with TLS and LAPG to have some outline generics by next week. And we are trying to keep out of the latter!
Anyone who reads this and is prepared to put head above the parapet and go to press via TLS and LAPG can make contact with them through ourselves.
In the meantime apologies to prospective delegates but we have had to cancel Fridays webinar.
Finally the following is from the Tenders Update section of the LSC website – does this compromise the whole process?
Please Note: unfortunately some letters sent out
Share
