Choice behaviour: Obiter can only admire the chutzpah displayed by justice minister Bridget Prentice at the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) conference last weekend. Addressing a room packed full of disgruntled criminal defence lawyers, Ms Prentice cheerfully informed the audience that a 'significant number of new firms' and the 'vast majority of existing firms' had 'chosen' to go in for the new criminal legal aid contracts. Of course, deploying the word 'chosen' provoked a chorus of heckles from delegates anxious to underline that, as far as they were concerned, choice didn't come into it. Undeterred, Ms Prentice told her audience they could continue to heckle but that firms were signing up. 'And that is a good thing, and we should be celebrating it rather than reacting negatively,' she defiantly declared. Hmm, Obiter cannot report that the minister's words were swiftly followed by the sound of contract converts popping champagne corks.