Criminal legal aid solicitors won a significant victory today in their attempt to block the government’s plan to introduce tenders for duty work.   The Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association (CLSA) and the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association   (LCCSA) have brought a joint judicial review against the government. The full hearing on the case is due to be heard on 15th and 16th January. They argue that the consultation on the plans, which the government had been compelled to undertake due to a previous judicial review,  was inadequate and that the timetable for the tender was “unrealistic.”   A judge considered the papers in an application for interim relief last Friday (19th December). This was refused, but counsel for the CLSA and LCCSA applied for an oral hearing on a renewed application which was heard today (23rd December). The High Court ruled that the government has to suspend its plans to introduce a tendering system for the contracts for duty police and magistrates court work, pending the full hearing of the case.   Bill Waddington, Chairman of CLSA, told LAG, “We could not have got a better result today. Both CLSA and LCCSA felt we had no choice, but to make this application to be heard before Christmas to bring the process to a halt.”  According to Waddington the timetable for the tenders was “always impossibly tight” and he questioned whether the tenders could now go ahead.   The Law Society is also bringing its own judicial review on the tender. According to the Law Society President, Andrew Caplen, the tender process will create “a serious risk of market failure.” Caplen hopes both claims will be combined into one hearing.   Criminal legal aid providers were expected to apply for the tenders by noon on 29th January. Announcements on whether or not firms had been successful in their bids were planned for after the general election, which will be held on 7th May 2015. With 1600 firms competing for only 527 contracts the results of the tender round, if it now goes ahead, are guaranteed to be controversial. A myriad of legal challenges to the tender results were expected to be brought by unsuccessful applicants.   According to a senior source within the Ministry of Justice, the government believes that they need to force a consolidation in the market for criminal legal aid services. They argue that the firms remaining after the tender round will benefit from savings of scale, making them more able to absorb cuts in fees.  A first fee cut of 8.75% has already been introduced and a further cut of 8.75% is planned for next year.   LAG believes that the government should have opted for a longer term managed consolidation in the market spread over a number of years. Such a plan had been agreed by practitioners groups and had been put to Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, over a year ago.   In our view the granting of interim relief today is a huge embarrassment for Grayling.  If it is now followed by a defeat in the main judicial review hearing next month, he risks being forced into a humiliating policy U-turn with a general election only a few months away.   Bill Waddington described the plans for duty tenders as “completely ludicrous.” We agree with him. The government should now accept that a re-think is needed and decide to abandon the tender process.   NB: This blog replaces an article which was published earlier today. The interim relief hearing had been originally scheduled for tomorrow, but was re-scheduled by the High Court.   Pic: Lawyers protest about criminal legal aid fee cuts in March 2014 (LAG)