CDs fall-out fears Steve Orchard, chief executive of the Legal Services Commission, writes that practitioners who fail to sign the Criminal Defence Service contract will be unable to undertake new criminal defence work funded by the commission after 2 April (see [2001] Gazette, 25 January, 18).

Mr Orchard is always straight talking.

I would ask that he be equally frank and answer the question: how will the LSC ensure that the government meets its responsibilities under the Human Rights Act and the Access to Justice Act 1999 on 2 April if an insufficient number of solicitors sign the proposed contracts? While negotiations upon the contract and remuneration continue, growing numbers of duty solicitor areas are signing up en masse to the 'no sign' declaration until the contracts are considered fair and workable and are properly remunerated.

In the face of growing opposition from criminal practitioners pushed to the brink, does the Lord Chancellor's Department through the LSC have a contingency plan to meet the turmoil that will inevitably follow without adequate defence representation?Roy Morgan, vice-chairman Legal Aid Practitioners Group