Protest action over legal aid cuts by criminal solicitors is ‘starting to bite’, practitioner groups claimed this week. Bill Waddington, chair of the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association, said the boycott of new Crown court cases around the country and the work to rule by solicitors in Liverpool are causing disruption.

Solicitors are also refusing to undertake any work until legal aid has been granted, and refusing certain applications to assist the court in domestic violence cases. But a spokeswoman for the court service reported the action has had ‘no significant impact so far’.