Legal aid: a sustainable future
Refugee Council response to 'Legal Aid: a sustainable future' - a consultation paper from the Department of Constitutional Affairs and the Legal Services Commission [October 2006]
The Legal Services Commission proposes to introduce a system of fixed fee payments for immigration lawyers. Below is the Refugee Council’s response to the consultation, setting out our concerns that the proposed system will have a serious impact on the availability of high quality legal advice and representation for asylum seekers. In summary, these concerns are that: - any system should be based on remunerating the amount of work involved in each case - and that a “one size fits all” approach is unlikely to achieve this
- fees need to be set at a realistic and competitive rate and research carried out to establish the appropriate rate
- payments for interpreting, translating, travel and waiting costs should be additional to any fixed fee
Increased financial constraints are likely to lead to a deterioration in supply and quality of legal advice and representation for asylum seekers. Published in October 2006 |
