Criminal chambers as well as solicitors’ firms will go to the wall under best value tendering (BVT), practitioners have warned while calling for the profession to unite on the issue.

One of their number, Wigan solicitor Andrew Keogh predicts that 85% of the 1,785 firms with criminal contracts could go bust if the Legal Services Commission’s plan to introduce price-competitive tendering for criminal defence services goes ahead. This will have a knock-on impact, Keogh said, because firms bidding rock-bottom prices will be forced to cut corners, leaving the bar to pick up the pieces: ‘If firms fall, chambers fall. We need the bar’s support.’

A Bar Council spokeswoman said the body will issue a joint response with the Law Society to the LSC’s proposals.

Meanwhile, an online Law Society survey shows that 74% of solicitors feel they lack the expertise to deal with the bidding process involved in BVT.

Richard Miller, Law Society legal aid manager, said: ‘Many solicitors are very efficient business people, but the bidding process involves skills that are in completely alien territory for them and which they have never had the need or the resources to develop.’

An LSC spokesman said Keogh’s figure was inaccurate. He said the commission is working with representative groups and planning how best to support providers.