In a devastating blow to criminal legal aid lawyers the Court of Appeal has rejected their attempt to block the government’s introduction of a new system for duty contracts in police stations and magistrates courts. LAG believes the government’s plans, which could slash the number of firms from 1600 to just 527, will have terrible consequences for many of the dedicated solicitors who provide the service and access to justice in general. The best hope now is for an incoming government to scrap the tenders.   The judicial reviews had been brought by the Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, Criminal Law Solicitors Association and the Law Society. They argued that the government’s plans for the duty contracts were unworkable and ignored crucial evidence on the economic viability of the criminal legal aid system, which mainly relies on small and medium sized firms to provide the services. The Court of Appeal ruled today that the government had done enough to ease the cash-flow problems the firms might experience changing over to the new system and that the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling had acted lawfully in his decision to introduce the scheme.   LAG understands that Grayling is restarting the tender process for the contracts from this Friday (27th March). This had been suspended pending the decision in the JRs. It is a controversial decision as it is so near the date of purdah, the parliamentary convention which discourages ministers from taking long term political decisions after the start of the main general election campaign, (this commences on Monday 30th March).   Criminal legal aid firms need duty contract work as it is the main source of new clients for them. Firms do hold what are know as own client contracts and can continue with this work, but those who bid unsuccessfully for duty contracts face a gradual decline in their income. Some niche firms might survive, but the vast majority without duty contracts are likely to go to go under. We believe it’s incredibly sad that many solicitors will lose their businesses over a matter which boils down to political dogma.   Everyone agrees the volumes of criminal legal aid work are in decline. In response to this firms have been merging or going out of business. Grayling though, seems determined to impose a restructure of the system rather than allow the market to continue with a more gradual change.   LAG believes limiting duty contracts to 527, combined with a further cut of 8.5% planned for July, risks reducing the standard of criminal defence work and will lead to miscarriages of justice. Labour has committed itself to scrapping the contracts if it wins the election. We’d suggest the government should have at least waited for the final verdict of the electorate before throwing legal aid firms and civil servants into a tender process which might still be abandoned.