Yesterday, like most days, I had a number of conversations with uniformly unhappy lawyers. Reflecting on this I cannot remember a time of greater tension between the LSC and the profession. In relation to my current caseload little of this has to do with civil procurement and a lot to do with the other areas of possible friction. I certainly cannot remember a time and place where I had 4 distinct and different “termination” issues all at one time – although memory does fail.
This may well be a unrepresentative sample from which it is not possible to extrapolate any serious findings. As, however, the Commission can even alienate its successful bidders, vital to Family delivery if they are successful next week, it does have the feel of an all time low. The previous low water mark was at the time of the “vote of no confidence” in the LSC, even then I cannot remember this degree of all-round hostility. From our perspective the evidence from the inflexibility decision making and even the very tone of interaction bears this out.
The days of the Preferred Supplier Scheme, daft though this might have been, with its explicit admission of a pending irretrievable breakdown in the relationship now seems like a golden era.