There is such a thing as asking for trouble. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949, the Legal Services Commission set up a special website last May, and then invited practitioners and the public to post comments about their experiences of legal aid.

So guess what happened? A fair few angry solicitors, and later on, we must admit, Obiter, posted some pointed remarks about government legal aid reforms. Oh dear – this was not at all what the commission had in mind – and the comments mysteriously disappeared in a puff of smoke. Clearly the LSC did not want a bunch of disgruntled legal aid lawyers spoiling its party.

Unfortunately for the LSC, however, before the comments were made to vanish, an online forum for legal aid professionals called ilegal captured most of them. The comments can be viewed at www.legalaidandme.proboards.com.

An LSC spokesman admitted that the commission had removed the posts, not because it didn’t like them of course, but because they were in the wrong place. He said the ‘have your say’ section was ‘primarily intended for clients who have benefited from, or been affected by, legal aid directly’, rather than for moaning solicitors.

The LSC added that it ‘welcomed’ comments from lawyers, but these should be directed to the Contact Us section of the LSC’s corporate website.

As for the vanishing comments, these have apparently been redirected to the LSC’s customer services team – where they will no doubt be given all the consideration that they deserve.