Members of the management team at national criminal defence firm Tuckers got a nasty surprise last week when they sat down to discuss the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) consultation paper on its controversial police station reforms.


There on the front cover of the paper was a large, full-colour image of two intense Tuckers team members holding Tuckers logoed pens and a Tuckers logoed police station file.



Senior partner Franklin Sinclair says someone at the LSC 'has clearly got a sense of humour', and that the firm is 'trying to see the funny side'.



However he has asked the commission to explain why it has given the impression that Tuckers is endorsing the paper when, Mr Sinclair says, it knows the firm is - 'putting it mildly' - very unhappy with the recommendations.



'The cover is certainly not going to win us popularity points with our peers who might misguidedly suppose we backed the paper,' he adds.



Cue grovelling by the LSC, which apologised to the firm. 'The image was used because it is relevant to the contents of the consultation paper - not to give an indication of Tuckers' views on the paper,' it tells us. 'The image was taken in 2004 and the people in the photograph have given us permission to use it in our publications.'