The Legal Aid Agency has been accused of potentially introducing a discriminatory policy that could make it difficult for women to do criminal legal aid work.

In a statement today, the Women In Criminal Law (WICL) group said a firm that does criminal legal aid work had been asked to identify solicitors on long-term leave prior to 1 October – when new crime contracts came into force – to be removed from the current three-month duty rota, which began last month.

WICL said: ‘The rules in the 2017 standard crime contract specification allowing firms to retain slots where duty solicitors are on long-term leave, including sick and maternity leave, will not carry forward, meaning that those on long-term leave prior to 1 October 2022 will not be eligible to obtain or retain their slots.’

WICL said duty solicitors who went on leave after 1 October 2022 would be protected under the 2022 crime contract. The LAA’s email ‘asks the firm in question to identify any duty solicitors at the firm on long-term leave prior to 1 October 2022 so that they can be removed from the rota’, WICL said.

'The impact of this decision is that duty solicitors on long-term leave prior to 1 October 2022 will lose their slots on the current duty rotas, and depending on when they went on leave, possibly the January 2023 rotas and beyond.'

WICL and the Law Society have asked the LAA for urgent clarification.

‘It is unclear whether this is a mistaken interpretation of the rules by certain LAA employees or a policy position that the LAA has taken. Clearly, such a policy would have an enormous detrimental and discriminatory impact on women solicitors in legal aid who would become a far less attractive employment prospect if there was a risk that their duty slots would be revoked should they go on maternity leave,’ WICL said.

The LAA told the Gazette that duty slots are awarded to the firm, not to individuals, and who covers each slot will be at the discretion of the contracted provider. The agency said it has not seen the letter referred to in WICL's statement.

 

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