Race discrimination

Case 11: The facts

Yvonne Patterson is a solicitor working in her own firm. She claimed discrimination by the Legal Services Commission on their refusal to award a legal aid franchise certificate to her firm. Patterson said that this had been done because she was Black. Before she could air the substance of her claim she had to show that she was covered by the 1976 Act.

The ruling

The Court of Appeal held that Patterson did not have a claim under section 4 of the Act because the legal aid certificate would not have imposed an obligation on her personally to carry out the work and section 4 only covers discrimination in the field of employment. However, she did have a claim against the commission under section 12 which says that it is unlawful for an authority or body which can confer an authorisation or qualification which is needed to engage in a trade or profession to discriminate, including by refusing to grant the application. The case will now be referred back to an employment tribunal for it to rule on whether or not there was discrimination.

* Legal Services Commission v Patterson Case No: A1/2003/0547