The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has announced that it will not appeal after losing Judicial review proceedings brought by the Law Society over the way Family Law contracts were awarded. Ccontracts which were due to expire have now been extended by a further month and may have to go out to tender again under revised rules.

Altough the proceedings did not relate to the handling of contracts for advice work such welfare benefits, debt or housing, many of the same issues also arose in the way these contracts were awarded. This latest decision may now mean that the LSC has to review the awards of new LSC contracts in areas beyond Family Law. There are already fears that the Government may be planning to remove legal aid for welfare benefits advice as part of the £500 million cuts to the Legal Aid budget announced in the recent spending review. Such a move could seriously threaten the existence of advice agencies which rely heavily on Legal Aid funding to survive.