Just back from 2 days dealing dealing with the nitty gritty of the legal aid provider – LAA relationship. You got it, primarily interpretations of contract and guidance in relation to unprofitable Legal Help cases. I will spare you the mind-numbing tedium of the individual arguments save to say a fair amount of “makeitupaswegoalongery” is involved.
I say unprofitable because, regardless of the basis economics of the scheme, by the time I and 3 solicitors (morning firm) and 2 partners (afternoon firm) have spent a couple of hours together, following long self-review processes, you know any surplus value has long since vanished.
Perhaps this is the real intention of current audit practice; to force the above realisation on firms and see them drop controlled work altogether.
It would certainly make financial sense – until the LAA find something else to aggressively micro manage.
