The secret diary of a legal aid solicitor: the day-to-day story of a high street practitioner
An anonymous legal aid solicitor writes about inequality of arms in a recent case.
Finishing a ten-day trial in a particularly challenging landlord and tenant matter, we discovered that the landlord’s costs were slightly over £300,000. We had the benefit of a Very High Cost Case (VHCC), but despite all our best efforts we had only managed to get our costs up to about £60,000, which sum included all counsels’ fees (and there were a lot of these) and disbursements. Obviously if we win we may get our costs on inter partes rates, but, sadly, if we lose we are looking at a massive amount of effort for very little reward.
Judgment is currently reserved. The case, which has spanned four years from inception until trial, throws up a number of issues.
First, the team involved at my firm were all extremely experienced. We were using counsel of over 30 years’ call and we had all gone the extra mile for this particular client who, while having capacity, was unable to read or write and was extremely difficult to get instructions from. Due to the disrepair issues, we had to visit the site on a number of occasions (not pleasant) and there were a number of witnesses who had to be interviewed locally as there were anti-social behaviour aspects to the matter. Some of these witnesses were unwilling and difficult. We had to view some 42 hours of covert CCTV.
Second, due to a number of curious problems concerning allegations of rent arrears and the definition of lunar, as opposed to calendar, month, the schedule of rent arrears going back many years almost needed a forensic accountant to make any sense of it. We could not get funding for a forensic accountant, albeit that the landlord could.
There were many interlocutory applications. On at least one occasion we had to write to the court saying we were not funded to attend (which we were not), and the matter proceeded in our absence.
Throughout the matter we have had to beg, implore and do everything in our power to increase funding for this very deserving, but very difficult, client.
VHCCs seem to work on the basis that the Legal Aid Agency hopes you don’t keep abreast of your costs. They make life as difficult for you as possible, and seem to give increases in your costs limitation reluctantly and on the basis that you are always asking for too much.
In housing (as opposed to, say, child care) there are few VHCCs. When an experienced practitioner such as myself undertakes such a matter for an underprivileged and challenging client (who had lived at the property all his life, some 68 years), should I really be having to beg for money every four weeks?
Something is rotten with the system when there is such a disparity as to costs. Quite why the landlord can run up £300,000 when the tenant is only allowed £60,000 smacks very much of inequality of arms.
These are the very tough cases; the cases where clients need a good lawyer, who is prepared to do legal aid work. I suspect that in the not too distant future, such lawyers will no longer exist.