A top Bradford solicitor has warned that city law firms will go out of business and members of the public will not get justice if the Government pushes through controversial legal aid proposals.

The Ministry of Justice has published a consultation paper which proposes dismantling the current criminal legal aid system and replacing it with a tendering system, aimed at providing the most economic and efficient representation for criminal clients.

But Alan Petherbridge, senior partner of leading Bradford law firm Petherbridge Bassra, said the MoJ was trying to save £220 million, and the measures, proposed to be brought in by October 2014, would leave only 25 legal aid contracts for the whole of West Yorkshire.

Mr Petherbridge pointed out there were 21 law firms carrying out criminal work in Bradford alone.

“Clients will no longer have a choice of solicitor if they want legal aid. They will be allocated one. For instance, clients who I have represented for 30 years, and built up a trust with over that period of time, will have to use another solicitor who is allocated to them that they do not know.

“Also, clients who live in Bradford may find that their nearest criminal lawyer may be in Wakefield or Leeds, making it difficult and expensive for them to see their solicitor.

“It could lead to a two-tier system, where those who have the money will get better access to justice.”

Mr Petherbridge said that law firms which did not get contracts would go out of business.

“Firms have employees who would lose their jobs, and if solicitors go out of business, it will have an impact on the local economy.

“If so many law firms go out of business, I don’t know where the future generations of lawyers will come from.”

Mr Petherbridge said the idea of “fat cat lawyers” was a myth and solicitors’ rates of pay had not increased for a decade. But he said lawyers in Bradford were prepared to take a 17 per cent cut to save money.

He said: “No-one owes us a living. We are all aware these are hard times and we will have to bite the bullet like everybody else.

“But these proposals are unworkable and unfair on both the law firms and the public.”

Mr Petherbridge said solicitors had been given only eight weeks to consult. Local lawyers have held meetings on the issue and the Bradford Law Society is making representations to the MoJ.

There is a national meeting of the Criminal Lawyers Association tomorrow when local solicitors will have a training day, leaving only a handful of duty solicitors to deal with cases.