Yesterday we belatedly learnt of the untimely death of Leeds solicitor Paul Hinds. It is therefore with great sadness that we bring this news to others who knew him, but similarly did not hear in time to attend the packed funeral last week. We extend our condolences to his family and friends.

We helped Paul apply for a franchise in the late 90s and he was one of those clients it was always a pleasure to visit. He was also subsequently able to assist another client of ours by becoming, on our recommendation, their external supervisor. That firm, like ourselves, will miss him.

Finally we understand that the family have requested any donations in memory of Paul be made to:

St. Gemma's Hospice
329 Harrogate Road
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS17 6QD

Posting here has been a bit haphazard of late. Strangely I find myself busier travelling than for many years, this keeping me out of the office for pretty much all of the next three weeks. The current week for instance involves two days training, one in-house the other as part of the the current tour. Thursday however sees me meeting 2 new clients in the North West. I am supposed to be taking some time out on Friday to spend with my in-laws but that is looking fairly unlikely right now.

Next follows a week with overnights in Birmingham (again) and the one after that is to be spent mainly in London. In the middle of this there is a fresh Peer Review appeal to write and I was hoping to see Middlesbrough Music Live from the rooftop of MIMA on Sunday, not least given that I am in-house training the weekend after.

This level of travel was commonplace at one time however in recent years, especially during the Contract Compliance Wars, I have become more office bound. Given the uncertainty of present times, and often just the simple need to chat with somebody independent, I imagine requests for meetings to increase rather than the opposite.

P.S. sorry there was no Friday video clip last week will do two this to make up.

Here are the LAPGs views of the latest CDS Direct proposals:

The LSC has today announced that it intends to proceed with a scheme whereby all requests for advice in the police station will be directed via the Duty Solicitor Call Centre, even where the client has requested their own solicitor, and in less serious cases, the only advice given will be telephone advice from the centralised telephone service CDS Direct.

LAPG Director Richard Miller said, "This change will confuse vulnerable clients into forgoing legal advice in the police station, which may well lead to more miscarriages of justice. We do not see how this proposal can save anyone's time or money. It replaces a single phone call from the police to the solicitor with a complex procedure that will involve numerous calls at the LSC's expense.

"Diverting clients to CDS Direct when they have asked for their own solicitor does not make sense from a purely human perspective. Where a solicitor has an established relationship with the client, the solicitor may well be able to persuade the client to accept the situation and co-operate as necessary. Conversely, a telephone call from a complete stranger may well merely generate a stream of invective and a refusal to
co-operate. We therefore believe that the police will be significantly disadvantaged by this scheme as well.

"All in all, we believe there are many good reasons for not going ahead, and none for going ahead."

Steve Barnes writes:
I was told yesterday that someone responsible for the Court Duty allocation for a town in West Yorkshire forgot to allocate anyone for Saturday Court; his rather blase response to the understandable queries raised was to say that if any firms are interested he would take the solictor's details and "draw lots out of a hat" - same approach as was once taken for CCA samples - do the people involved have a stake in the local milliners?

Bit under the weather.

Recurring neck problem.

Trying a bit of easy dictation from the comfy sofa.

So here's something a bit gentler this week. (Welsh Country music on Tuesday the proper US version today).

This is another example of something which interests me but usually leaves everyone else pretty cold. That said the fact that over half the 205 criminal firms peer reviewed are competent plus must be heartening.

The 17% appeals success rate is, I suppose, less so and is almost exactly the mirror image of our CCA stats.

Is it just me or is the taxation and assessment process getting harsher? Certainly my anecdotal evidence is backed up by that of a couple of clients and a recently published SCCO case report. That said another corespondent reports a good decision under the new LSC appeals process.

Let us know you experiences.

A correspondent to the Gazette (as ever it is not yet possible to provide a link) has spotted, as we did, the LSC's search for a Transformer. If you missed this first time round the proper job title is "Director of Organisational Transformation". Whether the "attractive six figure package" will compensate for being "loathed" by the profession and the likely hostility from LSC colleagues, constantly suspicious of their jobs being lined up for redundancy, remains to be seen.

Unfortunately applications are now closed. All we can do is await the naming of the new Megatron.

Friends of this site Afentis are "shouting" at lawyers, on this subject, next week. Rodney and I are at it too, in Birmingham.

I return from my wanderings, and an excellent performance by these guys, to another Peer Review result. This one is a Cat 4. In case you have not got the drift of the process yet there is one quote which sums it up:

"Whilst the advocates achieved some good results, this was not supported on the whole by well prepared paperwork".

Travel, today to Cardiff, precludes a lengthy post again today (and perhaps tomorrow). I look forward to the another perspective on Carter etc. from another part of the UK and will report back later in the week.

Next week I will be meeting with our web designer in Newcastle (any suggestion as to good restaurants in the centre of Toon would be appreciated).

After that we are going to indulge our mutual interest in the Manics.

So as it is Friday:

I also fully enjoyed the two thirds of this band who turned up in Middlesbrough Town Hall crypt last Saturday night (guess which original member was not present?):

Nominate your favourite tracks by the above in the comments box.

P.S. Andy's youngster mistook this for my band's, slow time mondays, version on the car radio.

Have you ever bought something expensive which doesn't work properly ? An ineffectual kitchen gadget, a item of clothing which clashes with everything else in your wardrobe, Sky HD which will not properly record "Later...with Jools Holland"?

If you have you might also have experienced the elation of finding an alternate use for it which saves face with your partner, such as standing on it to reach the top cupboards or discovering that it is the best cloth ever for cleaning glasses etc.

I imagine therefore that the LSC are currently having similar emotions with regard to the PDS. Apparently Humberside solicitors are refusing to serve Beverly Magistrates court under the new designated areas standard fee scheme. The Leeds RO are therefore drafting in the Darlington PDS, three days a week, as cover.

Anyone know if this is bringing criminal justice in Darlo to a halt?

The Gazette gives front page prominance to next weeks "Week of Action". It is being organised by the Access to Justice Alliance.

As you will be aware I was out shouting at a room of training delegates yesterday afternoon and not surprisingly the subject of Peer Review was on the agenda. To assist those who still find the LSC website difficult to navigate click here and go to a post in November last year where you can download the five available "Improving Quality Guides".

Happy reading.

Very brief post as the tour bus is revving up outside. I might see one or two regular readers over the course of the next week or so.

May I also refresh that request for copies of recent Peer Review results - i think this might prove vital in the current appeal I am preparing and probably in future ones.

I do not have time to Fisk the latest claims of an expanding CLS from the LSC. Fortunately Mr Miller is on hand to help out.

LAPG response to LSC press release.

Director Richard Miller said, "While it is good news that the number of people being helped is rising, the extent of the help made available is also significant. The value of claims by solicitors for legal help has, on the LSC's figures, dropped from almost £190 million last year to only £160 million this year, while the number of hours reported by NFP agencies has increased by only around 50,000, which represents about £2.5 million worth of work.

"Since April, the public has had well over 200 fewer places where they could access the help they need, and the numbers continue to drop. West and Central Berkshire and East Yorkshire are both now without any solicitors providing social welfare advice. Telephone advice is fine for some cases and some clients, but it is often insufficient. Where face to face advice is not available locally, many clients with anything more than the most simple needs cannot get help."

He continued, "We see a role for technology here to ensure that the expert advice which clients need can be provided from a central location to a client assisted by a local adviser. This will need Government investment in a videolink network. Unfortunately, specialist services are being lost rapidly by attrition. They are gone before a replacement is available,leaving people who need help to fend for themselves. The Government needs to invest more to preserve current services until it can undertake a sensible phased reorganisation."

Conveying emotion in the written word is hard. When it a complex mix of rage, sadness, dispair coupled to complete powerlessness it is impossible. As today's events play out these intensify.

I therefore post this for the fellow Leeds fans I know read the site, who might like to do what I have done today and joined LUST. Here is the membership application form for those uneasy about paying online.

Do it, you know it makes sense. Whether this will make me feel any better remains to be seen.

Friday video time. This week based on the following convoluted logic; the first venue on the training tour is a (fugitive) motel and this band come from Manchester like the rumours below. Have a good weekend.

Interesting rumours are emanating from Manchester regarding possible delays in the October implementation of Carter. Anyone able to confirm or deny - especially our good Autorecbot readers.

My latest training adventure begins on Wednesday next week in the esteemed company of Mr Rodney Warren. He and I have just been whinging about the difficulty of writing courses in this climate of mass consultation and uncertainty - all the more disturbing given his centrality to the "negotiations".

There are still places available and I (modestly) think my bit is quite good. Plus you could also get a free mousemat! But so you can simply by ringing Sandra or Joanna.

Longer ago than I care to remember we spotted the move towards remote monitoring based on contract reporting data. (It was an intelligent spot about which we are really quite smug). At the time, and I do not think this has much changed, there was not a single proprietary brand of accounts software which provided reporting functions to meet this development.

This created a number of problems, not least challenging the LSCs statistical assumptions became a significant manual task. Our hope was to come up with an easy to use solution which would not involve duplication of data input - either into a secondary piece of software or in addition to the manual completion of CMRF or CDS 6 forms. So the aim was something which would produce report forms and hold onto the data in a format that could be extensively, but speedily, interrogated.

We pondered on this for some time, not being computer experts, to no avail.

The next part of the story is both true and also now part of JRS folklore. (And I recount it although it makes me appear slightly obsessive). I had a dream in which I created a Microsoft Excel workbook, involving a "cut and paste" macro, which met all our specifications. I woke up, and before the image faded, walked across the landing and into my home office (where I am typing this now) and spent the next few hours making it a reality. So were born the CDS 6 and CMRF "Generators" as we originally called them.

We have more recently renamed them "Wizards" and today proudly launch the new post April 2007 on-line versions. They are available FREE from the "Resources" section on the side bar and can be used to report either on-line or traditionally.

There is a new downloadable "users guide" to accompany them too.

We could not manage this entirely alone this time and would like to publicly thank Chris for this help.

Finally let us know of any glitches so we can sort them out.

Happy Wizarding

I like to think I am a reasonably fair minded person. So given the various posts here in recent weeks accusing the LSC of willfully disregarding exert evidence demonstrating the impracticality of their Carter implementation proposals, I thought it right to put the record straight. (We have referred to this as "I'm not listening ears"). It is now for you to judge whether this accusation is an accurate representation of the Commissions position:

The Legal Services Commission has issued the following statement following today's publication of the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee's report on legal aid reform.

LSC Chief Executive Carolyn Regan said:

"We are continuing to work towards implementation of various elements of the legal aid reform programme in October as planned. This will ensure that providers have information about the schemes as early as possible. However, we recognise that Ministers will need to consider and respond to the Select Committee's report during the coming weeks."

The LSC will continue to not listen as further calls for breaks on the process, and even that there is the need for an immediate 5-7% increase required to float the proposed changes, are made. Read the summary of the LECG under the blue "independent economic analysis" link at the least.

Thanks to the vigilance of LAPG here is another interesting development. Once again fingers in ears and La La La La La. Have they stopped yet?

LAPG WELCOMES SELECT COMMITTEE REPORT
 
The Legal Aid Practitioners Group today warmly welcomed the Constitutional Affairs Committee report into the Government's legal aid changes. The report calls on the Government to halt its programme until there is an evidence base to justify it, to scrap the move to fixed fees, and to pilot any changes before rolling them out across the whole country.
 
Director Richard Miller said, "The Committee’s analysis of the LSC/DCA approach is damning. The proposals are ‘reckless’. They will ‘disadvantage already vulnerable clients’. There is ‘a major risk that specialist providers will be lost to the Legal Aid system’. The LSC relies on academic economic theory ‘in the teeth of LSC-commissioned evidence which casts doubt on the capacity of supplier[s] to respond’. These criticisms, which echo our own concerns, are now coming from an all-party Parliamentary committee with the benefit of evidence from all relevant stakeholders and extensive independent advice.”
 
He continued, “Clients with mental health issues, with disabilities, or who are fleeing domestic violence will find it much more difficult to get help under the crude fixed fee schemes proposed. Firms that specialise in helping such clients will no longer be able to do so when the fees they are paid are based on averages for all clients. We are relieved that the Committee has recognised that any fee scheme needs to reflect more closely the work required in each case, and has called for the introduction of the LSC’s schemes to be halted. We sincerely hope that for the sake of our clients, the Government will listen.”
 
LAPG has already identified some of the damage done to the legal aid supplier base by the anticipation of these new schemes. Over 200 firms decided not to continue doing any legal aid work after April 2007, and many of those who signed the new contracts have dropped some areas of law, and/or are in the process of winding up their legal aid practices altogether. One of the losses was the last major social welfare law provider in central and west Berkshire. The final firm in East Yorkshire offering social welfare law services has now pulled out. There is an area of South-East London served by only two firms of solicitors offering housing advice. Among other London housing advisers lost were Powell Forster, Everett & Co, J C Gorringe, Belshaw Curtin and Daniel & Harris. A large firm in Kings Lynn that has signed the contract is winding up its practice and not taking on any new clients, leaving a town of 35,000 people without its only mental health practitioner, and with significantly reduced availability of family law advice.
 
LAPG chair Roy Morgan said, “The damage that has already been done to the supply of legal aid services has restricted the ability of people to get the advice they need on the problems affecting their day to day lives. We hope the LSC and the DCA will heed the Committee’s strong urging that they reconsider the path they are going down before far worse damage is done.”

The CLSA's views are here.