A call to arms

Like many of the recent correspondents, I am fed up with the Lord Chancellor's attitude to solicitors who provide legally aided advice, assistance and representation.I consider the rebranding of the Legal Aid Board and legal aid to be an expensive mistake and, in my view, the name of the government agency that controls legal aid is of little concern to the client.It is also quite clear that Legal Services Commission (LSC) staff are expected to cope with the changes without having been properly trained.

I appreciate that Citizens Advice Bureaux, solicitors and other agencies should work together, but surely that could have been done throughinter-agency training and the publication of a directory of solicitors firms and other agencies detailing areas of expertise.I am also fed up with the culture that solicitors have created of giving free advice to people who can well afford to pay for it, to the extent that people demand as of right the 'first half hour for free'.

I undertake pro bono work because I want to help an individual who has no funds available and who requires assistance.

I also want to make my business successful and make a profit, and I want my business to grow.Unfortunately, the Lord Chancellor (who really ought to consider a return to private practice and do us all a favour) and the government do not value the work that I and other solicitors do.I do not agree with a strike as that would affect clients directly and would only dent our reputation further.

I would suggest a campaign of non-co-operation with the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) and the LSC.Solicitors who are on LCD or LSC committees should resign immediately.

Deputy district judges, part-time tribunal chairmen and others in part-time quasi-judicial or judicial roles should be unavailable to sit for three months (or longer, if possible).

Solicitors should not attend any LSC conferences or 'road shows', or any conference where the Lord Chancellor or any member of his staff are invited to speak.In this way, maybe the government and the LSC will appreciate that solicitors have had enough.

The government and the LSC have been told often enough, but refuse to listen.

Perhaps my suggestion will make them listen.A M Robinson, Jacqueline Emmerson Solicitors, Sunderland