Legal Aid IP Private Practitioners Panel
Dear Members,
Can I ask whether any of you in IILA accept work under the Private Practitioners International Protection Legal Aid Scheme. If you don’t accept the work is it due to the lowly fees on offer?
I am on the panel and have done a few cases but the level of fees payable is utterly insulting. They pay €400 for a full appeal the IPAT which is supposed to cover reading the papers, consultation (s), drafting grounds of appeal, submissions and then representation at hearing.
Do we know how the level of fees were arrived at? Were the Law Society or any immigration lawyers were consulted as to how much work is involved in properly representing a client at IPAT. (I am going to file FOI requests to try to find out how they came up with the fee structure).
Does anyone know anything about this – or is anyone interested in getting together to try to do something about it?
Regards,
Siúna
We refuse to participate in the IP legal aid scheme as it is impoverished and it is not possible to do the work properly without subsidising the work ourselves which is a great way to go bust! There is no funding for the early stages which is where the case is usually saved or lost forever.
Criminal legal aid is nearly as bad with inflation and 2001 rates applying over 20 years later and family law legal aid might almost be worse! Custody Issues Legal Aid in Article 40 cases is uneconomical for solicitors so I won't agree to do those cases on that scheme any more and I'll only consider taking them on a private client basis which is working out well as we have succeeded in all cases so far getting costs orders instead. That scheme is ok for barristers but we are linked to junior counsel's rate which in turn is linked to what the state pays its junior, usually to show up and say we were right all along and our client should be released from custody! We do a lot more work. Solicitors carry all the costs of having an office and staff etc. Also claiming the legal aid is painful.
IMO Legal Aid has become the State's way of financially compromising Applicant's lawyers in most immigration cases!