Even before legal aid reforms came into force last October, many familylawyers were leaving publicly funded work behind. Dedicated lawyerstaking on work for vulnerable children and families were being forced toshut their doors to cases, unable to get sufficient funding.
To find out the scale of the problem the Association of Lawyers forChildren (ALC) carried out a snapshot survey at its annual conferencejust over a month after the reforms - which now see lawyers paid a fixedfee per case rather than by the hour - were introduced (see box).
Caroline Little, joint chair of the ALC, says: "We were quite shocked bythe outcome. We knew there was movement but we were surprised by theextent and that so many experienced people are leaving."
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