Brian Archer

The latest edition of The Writ, the Law Society’s magazine, includes a Q&A with Brian Archer, a sole practitioner who took up the presidency of the Society in December 2022.

“Undoubtedly, we are living in unprecedented times with significant pressures on the economy and growing uncertainty about public spending cuts,” he said.

He pointed out that legal aid practices are reliant on payments from the government which are coming increasingly late, causing “great difficulty in maintaining a cash flow sufficient to keep our offices running”.

Mr Archer said: “There is no justification why it should take on average 12 weeks to pay these fees. In every other sphere of business the government aims to pay its service providers for completed work within 30 days.

“I recently had a discussion with a Scottish legal aid solicitor who advised me that once he submits a report on case to the Scottish Legal Aid Board he can expect payment within seven to 10 days. Why can our Legal Services Agency not meet similar targets? We are simply asking that we are paid in a timely fashion consistent with business norms.”

He went out to highlight the increased competition within the legal commercial sector, with Northern Ireland now hosting more international law firms than anywhere else in the UK, which he said had “driven the salaries for newly qualified solicitors in these firms to starting at £40,000”.

“This in itself has widened the divide between commercial and legal aid law firms,” he said. “General practice offices are suffering a crisis of recruitment, retention, and succession planning.

“Many young solicitors do not want to work outside Belfast and are avoiding the traditional high street practice which deals with domestic conveyancing, criminal legal aid and personal injury cases.

“Unless this trend is changed in the medium term we will lose the network of small practices which provide an essential one stop legal service throughout our jurisdiction.”