We are the only firm in Liverpool with a contract to do public law work.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, we have run out of matter starts.

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has refused to give us any more; nor can it tell us where we should refer our clients.

The reason for this is that the LSC has not yet concluded our audit and at present it suggests that this 'office' is in category 3.

That result is subject to a review, which has been pending for two months already.

The categorisa-tion relates to the whole of the 'office'.

although the public law contract itself was in fact within category 1.

The system has gone mad, but those who suffer most are those that the LSC is supposedly trying to help and to ensure are not socially excluded.

Surely it is time to remove the hated audit system and introduce a fair procedure to ensure that publicly funded legal services are provided on the basis of need, not of market forces.

Chris Topping, Jackson and Canter, Liverpool