Legal aid in Northern Ireland should be administered by a new independent commission instead of the Law Society - the solicitors professional body - according to British government proposals published today.
Draft legislation produced by the Lord Chancellor's Department would establish a Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission as a non-departmental public body.
It would administer publicly-funded legal services from April of next year, taking over the role from the Law Society's Legal Aid Committee.
The government has invited comment on the new proposals until July 22.
The Lord Chancellor's Department said under it's proposals the new Commission would have a chair and between six and ten other members and be representative of the community, including people from management and business backgrounds.
The Commission would be responsible for the procedures for paying lawyers for publicly-funded work and the introduction of quality assurance standards for the legal services provided.
It would have a statutory duty to obtain "best value for money".
The draft legislation also provides for alternative ways of increasing access to justice for people who are not eligible for legal aid but who would be daunted by the costs of litigation.
The government will consider the introduction of "no win - no fee" arrangements, already available in England and Wales, or a privately funded "Contingency Legal Aid Fund" which would pay for litigation and be reimbursed by those who won their cases.
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine said: "This is a milestone in introducing a modern, transparent system of publicly funded legal services for the people of Northern Ireland."
He said the Commission would be able to "control expenditure on publicly funded legal services and to make sure that resources are targeted on the most needy".
Net expenditure on the provision of publicly funded legal services in Northern Ireland has increased from £12.19 million in 1990/91 to £37.70 million in 2000/01 representing an increase in real terms of 133%.