There is no part of the legal aid world right now that does not provoke some sort of argument, so let us take you to recent events at Glastonbury. For the past ten years, Somerset Law Society, in conjunction with the Citizenship Foundation, has provided legal information to festival goers. This year, for the first time, the Public Defender Service (PDS) also (literally) pitched up.


'There were many parallels with the provision of legal services by the private/public sector in the outside world,' observes Kevin Shearn, the society's honorary secretary. 'Both crews arrived full of enthusiasm and were set up ready for business by the Wednesday morning. The private sector provided their own long-established privately funded premises and equipment in the form of a 22-year-old trailer tent and 36-year-old Land Rover. The public sector arrived with a brand new pristine white marquee, replete with interview rooms and a clicker to count the number of punters.'



There is more along these lines - such as the private practice lawyers sleeping in tents while the PDS 'removed themselves to motor home accommodation offsite every evening' - and questions over the latter's commitment to providing legal services during the worst of the weather.



In the spirit of fairness, we put the various points to the Legal Services Commission, which responded, shall we say, in full. Overall, it advised around 70 festival goers and was also potential back-up for the duty solicitor rota for the festival police station. 'The PDS refutes that the stall was unstaffed during the worst of the weather... The PDS deliberately chose equipment in order to be able to reuse it in future. This was clearly a better and more cost-effective option than renting a marquee.'



As for the most controversial accusation - that they did not slum it with the rest - the reason for the campervan was 'to enable a professional appearance to be maintained'. The statement then goes on to ask: 'Would you want advice at a police station from a mud-covered figure claiming to be a lawyer?' Some may say this could become a regular sight post-Carter, but we would not want to stir things up any further.



Anyway, pictured for the Somerset Law Society/Citizenship Foundation are: Janine Graham, Ian Parker (Ash Clifford), Ed Boyce (Boyce & Co), Brian Ashley (paralegal, Foot Anstey), Nigel Yeo (Ash Clifford), Andy Graham, David Randle (Ash Clifford) and Kevin Shearn (Stones). The Graham siblings are not lawyers but dropped in to lend a hand.