We are starting to take calls on a regular basis from firms not knowing what the current position is in relation to the duty solicitor rotas. We have spoken to the Legal Services Commission today who have confirmed: 1. The next deadline for CDS12 submission is 8th November at 5pm. The LSC want CDS12s emailing through to them at dutysolqueries@legalservices.gsi.gov.uk 2. The LSC are apparently considering breaking the contract halfway, but in the meantime no firms are allowed to make applications for new geographic areas. We are not entirely sure how true this will be, as the LSC seem very good at changing the goalposts every few minutes, but in terms of recruitment plans we thought this may assist. It does mean as far as we can see that no firms will gain new slots outside their own geographic areas by setting up offices or taking on staff in other locations. The benefit in recruiting duty solicitors appears to be that the slots on each rota are awarded according to the number of duty ...
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