The government should heed the warnings of those who work at the sharp end of the family justice system, says Lucy Theis QC
The Family Law Bar Association (FLBA), like many other organisations working in the family justice system, has real concerns about the government’s plans to overhaul publicly funded fees in the family cases (see Family Legal Aid Funding from 2010: A Consultation).
The FLBA, which represents the interests of specialist family barristers and has over 2,300 members nationally, has advocated for many years the principle of equal payment for equal work—whoever undertakes the advocacy.
We proposed an integrated approach to the Family Graduated Fee Scheme (FGFS) in the late 1990s, which was rejected by the Legal Services Commission (LSC). However, the current FGFS was carefully crafted, after lengthy consultation, and produced a reasonable and durable business model for the remuneration of advocacy services. It has graduation within its structure to properly remunerate the complexity of the case.
Public fund mismanagement Its proposed successor, the Family Advocacy Scheme (FAS), has no proper graduation and, as a result, grossly over rewards
