A STAND off between lawyers and the Government over cuts to legal aid fees could lead to serious miscarriages of justice, a Taunton solicitor has warned.

A number of law firms are refusing to handle new legal aid cases after the Government cut the amount it pays to solicitors by 8.75% - following a similar drop last year.

Solicitor Ed Boyce said the action has led to dozens of defendants going unrepresented at Taunton Magistrates’ Courts and will have knock-on consequences at more serious cases being sent to Taunton Crown Court.

“The vast majority of criminal legal aid providers have decided we just can’t provide a proper service at those rates, so we’ve not been providing legal aid for any new clients since July 1,” said Mr Boyce.

“There are a significant number of people unrepresented going before the courts.

“It’s clogging up the court system and will be filtering through to the Crown Court, where more serious cases are heard.”

Mr Boyce said the new rates would mean his firm losing tens of thousands of pounds a year and withdrawing from offering legal aid would mean “a massive hit to ourselves”.

He added: “Tarnishing defence lawyers with the fat cat brush is simply a myth – the rates we get are nowhere in comparison with the rates high street solicitors charge walk0in clients.

“We’re doing the duty solicitor work we’re contracted to do, but withdrawing all our goodwill.

“It’s not something we do lightly, but the Ministry of Justice is abusing our professionalism and it’s time to take a stand.

“From this week, there have been cases in Crown Court where people have been remanded on serious allegations and don’t have legal aid.

“We often represent people with mental health or addiction problems who are just not in a position to represent themselves and the courts aren’t used to dealing with these people without representation.

“There could certainly be cases of miscarriages of justice because of this.”

Solicitor representatives are meeting the Ministry of Justice today (Thursday) to try to thrash out a compromise A spokesman for the MoJ, which is slicing £249million from its budget this year and which spent £1.7billion on legal aid last year, said: “Although the transition will be challenging, the changes we are pressing ahead with are designed to ensure we have a system of criminal legal aid that delivers value for money to taxpayers, that provides high quality legal advice to those that need it most, and that puts the profession on a sustainable footing for the long term.”

He added that an independent reviewer would assess the impact of the changes in July next year.