Life is hard as a legal aid lawyer. Government cuts and a lack of funding has seen many leave the profession to the point where it is now thought that criminal defence lawyers could become extinct in England and Wales.
It’s understandable that many would avoid entering the profession. You go to university and go through the LPC with dreams of earning big money at a big commercial firm and the money on offer in criminal defence pales in comparison.
So how do we change this image and draw more people into the profession? Well, in my eyes, there are two main reasons why people decide to embark on a career in law in the first place: money; and to help people. Now we’ve established that people won’t become criminal defence lawyers based on pay, so it is important to appeal to the future lawyers’ compassionate side.
Sell them the idea of a career that is truly rewarding, where you can help people at their most desperate and prevent an innocent man from losing his liberty.
But still, it is important to make sure that your firm remains profitable. The way to do this, is through greater efficiency. Using a system that removes any duplication of work, that completes forms for you and links with the LAA portal saving you time and hassle. This, in a system like DPS will help you to work more cases and make more money and make your firm more profitable.
So we need to work hard to bring new faces into the profession, because without them, we face not just the extinction of criminal defence, but of justice itself.
Find out more about our legal aid software by clicking here.
