Times are tight at the moment, so you would expect the Legal Services Commission to be doing all it can to maximise its income. But Obiter had to chuckle at two letters received this week which reveal the full extent of penny-pinching at the legal aid body. A letter from Hertford solicitor Robert Jameson informed us that his firm, Jameson & Hill, which until recently had a civil legal aid contract with the LSC, was in ‘hot water’ over a debt owed to the commission. Jameson immediately offered to settle the matter, and sent over a cash payment. This was rejected as the LSC ‘does not accept cash’, and the commission has continued to show a debit on the firm’s account. Jameson says he can understand that the LSC might have money laundering concerns over cash payments, but questions whether such rules are really appropriate for a debt of, er, 46p.

Aileen Chapman, partner at Chapman & Chubb in Derbyshire, goes one better. She informs us of an email from the LSC in relation to a contract from which the firm withdrew in 2007. The LSC was seeking to recoup a previous overpayment of one penny, and invited her to send a cheque. Chapman wonders how much it cost to send that particular invoice, and how much more it would cost were the LSC to actually process a cheque for such a tiny amount. Two penny-pinching letters in one week – it must be more than a coincidence. Legal aid solicitors had better start clearing out their pockets for shrapnel.