As a thirty-five year veteran of the police service in Britain and a graduate of the FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia, over the years I often cast my beady eye over the legal profession. Whilst serving in the police I was often critical of lawyers for abusing the legal aid system in the UK and often said so publicly. It became apparent that lawyers, being busy people, were just applying the system as it was, and, except in a minority of cases, were doing nothing illegal. However I believed it was still a scandalous waste of public money.

 

This applies to billing and fee management generally in the public sector and amounts to millions of pounds of taxpayers' money being wasted because of bad management by governments of all persuasions. It was with delight therefore that I came across Gary Markham, who with Legal Solutions Group, was involved in the business of righting this grievous wrong. By the use of bespoke software and clever technology, lawyers and clients are presented by Gary, with a tool which enables the lawyer and client to arrive at a fair fee for the job carried out. No disputes, no repayments, no embarrassment.

 

The enormous advantage to the public is that is saves their tax pounds from wasteful expenditure. The benefit for the lawyer is that their business is put on an efficient footing to enable the use of the information provided as a positive management tool for measuring performance.

 

It is a slow process turning around the ship of State, but we are getting there, working with the co-operation of those reviewing public expenditure in this important legal environment. The result will be a win, win both for the legal profession as well as the long suffering taxpayer. I am delighted to be part of it!