Impact of legal aid reforms

MOAt the Association of Lawyers for Children's Annual Conference 2007 on 17 November, the Association carried out a survey of delegates designed to ascertain the impact of the Government's current legal aid reforms on those members of the Association attending the Conference.

The survey was directed at solicitors in private practice or who had left private practice within the last 18 months.

A third of the 101 individuals sampled were reducing publicly funded work, and 40% of firms had reduced or intended to reduce reliance on publicly funded work.

Of the 17 people who had left or were leaving practice, 62% cited legal aid changes as their reason for leaving.

More information, including the full survey, can be found on the ALC's website: http://www.alc.org.uk/ALC_Latest_News.htm.