The Law Society, Regina (on the Application of) v Legal Services Commission: CA 29 Nov 2007

The Law Society challenged the new contract proposed for legal aid providers, saying that the Unified Contract reserved too great powers to alter its terms unilaterally, and was in breach of the European Directive on standards for public procurement contracts.
Held: The contract was invalid. Where amendments to the tender criteria or to the contract are made after an award to one party, such amendments are liable to infringe the principles in that, had the other tenderers been aware in advance of the terms of the contract actually put in place, this might have affected the terms of their tenders. Such amendments can violate the principle of transparency and of equality of treatment. It cannot therefore be said that there are any effective limitations, still less that the parameters of change will be known to the profession. The power of amendment was so wide as to amount to a power to rewrite the contract.

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers CJ, Wall LJ, Lawrence Collins LJ
[2007] EWCA Civ 1264, Times 03-Dec-2007, [2008] 2 All ER 148, [2008] 2 WLR 803, [2008] QB 737
Bailii
Council Directive 2004/18/EC, Public Contract Regulations 2006, Access to Justice Act 1999
England and Wales
Citing:
CitedCommission v CAS Succhi di Frutta (Judgment) ECJ 29-Apr-2004
Europa Appeal – Common agricultural policy – Food aid – Tendering procedure – Commission decision amending the conditions after the auction – Payment of successful tenderers in fruit other than those specified in . .
CitedCommission v France ECJ 14-Oct-2004
ECJ (Judgment) In an action for annulment the purpose of the pre-litigation procedure is to give the Member State concerned an opportunity, on the one hand, to comply with its obligations under Community law and, . .
CitedCommission v Belgium C-87/94 ECJ 25-Apr-1996
ECJ (Judgment) 1. The procedure laid down by Directive 90/531 on the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors must be observed irrespective of . .
CitedTelaustria and Telefonadress (Judgment) ECJ 7-Dec-2000
. .
CitedSIAC Construction v County Council of the County of Mayo ECJ 18-Oct-2001
ECJ Public works contracts – Award to the most economically advantageous tender – Award criteria.
There was a disagreement between the parties as to the interpretation of tender documents.
Held: The . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Legal Aid, Legal Professions, European

Updated: 11 December 2021; Ref: scu.261609