Criminal legal aid firms are currently awaiting the results of their applications for duty contracts for police station and magistrate’s court work. There has been some speculation that this will happen over the next couple of days, but LAG has heard from reliable sources that the successful bidders will be announced the week commencing 21st September. Whenever the decisions are made public, it can be guaranteed that this will not be the end of the controversy over the contracts.   In a move which was described as a “goodwill gesture” the organisations representing criminal legal aid solicitors called off their boycott of new cases last month. The dispute was sparked by the introduction of a fee cut of 8.75% from 1st July. LAG believes support for the action was beginning to crumble and so the announcement from the solicitors’ representatives can be seen as no more than a face saving gesture. Despite three meetings at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) no substantial concessions had been made by the government to settle the dispute and firms were beginning to feel the pinch after not taking on any new work for nearly two months.   Practitioners remain united in their opposition to the fee cut, but seem split on the issue of two tier contracts. Many remain implacably opposed to the new system of separate contracts for own client work, which are not limited in numbers and the new contracts for duty work which are. Some firms though, including a number amongst the 37 in the Big Firms Group, are going along with the new system as they want the greater volumes of work that reducing the number of duty contracts to 527 will bring.   Sources close to the negotiations, which took place between the government and the practitioner groups, say that they believed the Lord Chancellor, Michael Gove, might be willing to make a concession on the issue of the pay cut- a three month delay was floated as a possible compromise. LAG believes it would still be in the MoJ’s interests to make such a gesture in order to secure the good will of lawyers in a wider shake-up of the criminal justice system.   While it has proved impossible for legal aid lawyers to unite behind a platform of opposition to two tier contracts, some still doubt whether the contracts will go ahead. LAG understands that many firms are looking at the possibility of legal challenges if they lose out in the tender process. An overall systemic challenge might or might not happen, but the process could also be undermined if the numbers of legal challenges in the individual procurement areas reaches a critical mass.   The Otterburn report, which was jointly commissioned by the MoJ and Law Society, warns that profit levels at many legal aid firms are in danger of being fatally undermined if the fee cut was to go ahead. Firms which have successfully bid for the contracts are also unsure how much competition they will face from other firms with own client contracts only who will be keen to cream off the most lucrative cases. Into this mix the government has thrown in the prospect of court closures. Firms will not have been able to factor in the extra costs of travel if the courts closures go ahead. It could be that the real problems will start after 11 January as some firms may not be able to fulfil the contracts they have won.   Steve Hynes, Director of LAG