Legal aid barristers should stop billing by the hour and move towards fixed fees, Bar Council chairman Geoffrey Vos stated in his speech at the Conservative Party Conference yesterday (2 October).

The speech, outlining Vos' vision for the future of justice, heard him call for fixed-fee payments per case, especially in high-cost cases, which currently consume a large portion of the legal aid budget.

He said: "In all areas, not least in very high-cost cases, we must move away from an hourly rate of pay and instead pay by the case with a properly graduated fees system."

Vos also raised concerns about the Legal Services Commission's plans to introduce price-based competitive tendering and a single fee to cover both litigator and advocate legal aid work.

Vos said: "The plan would reduce the quality of advocacy available to the public, and would cost more as a result of less efficiently conducted cases, increasing the length of cases and proliferating court and judge costs."

He called on the Government to rethink its proposals to preserve the quality of the justice system for the benefit of the public.

Vos also highlighted the Bar's drive to increase diversity and ensure that high-quality lawyers remain attracted to publicly-funded work.