Three stories have struck me in the news today.
The HIPS disaster
HIPs were introduced in about 2007 I think as a way to ‘speed up’ conveyancing. Practically every conveyancer I have ever spoken to has said that it was ill conceived and would do little if nothing to help conveyancing delays. Did the government listen? No of course not. They had to be ‘seen to be doing something about it’, so in they came.
On the back of this, thousands of people put their trust in the government and paid for expensive training, set up new businesses, and/or developed now software so they could offere a HIPs service.
Today we are told that HIPs have been suspended with immediate effect. So good, in that a pointless piece of red tape has now gone. But a disaster to all those professionals who put their trust and their careers in the government’s plans.
Legal aid again
I have written frequently in the past on my Landlord Law Blog about problems with legal aid (as that blog is now more focused on housing matters, I will be bringing some of that discussion over here). Everyone in the legal profession knows that far from being a ‘gravy train’ (as is often claimed in the press), those doing legal aid work are actually earning substantially less than their colleagues acting for private clients, and in some cases are not really making any profit at all.
However many solicitors continue to offer a legal aid service, partly because they believe in providing a service for those more disadvantaged in our society, and partly because that is what they ‘do’ and re-training is not really an option (or not an option they want to take).
I now read that some firms are actually threatened with bankruptcy because the Legal Services Commisison (the government funded body which runs the legal aid system) is delaying payments to legal aid firms. My view is that firms should think very carefully indeed today about offering any type of legal aid service. It could result in substantial financial losses. There are after all other ways of helping the disadvantaged.
Some good news
The third story which has struck me today is that Quality Solicitors, (which I wrote about here) is to set up a chain of High Street offices, in a bid to become the first ‘big name’ solicitors chain.
Good luck to them! It is good to see lawyers fighting back.
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It never ceases to amaze me how many solicitors seem to be really surprised whenever the government announces the latest set of legal aid cuts. Government policy has been clear for years — solicitors doing legally aided work should expect to be paid less for doing more. Too many solicitors have spent years cross subsidizing their legal aid clients through more profitable private client work. The current position for most legal aid solicitors is poor – and the future will only get bleaker and bleaker. What’s remarkable is how many firms still seem to limp on doing far too much publicly funded work. When will the profession finally wake up and smell the coffee?