I have been asked by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to supply a number of files for peer review.

Needless to say, the commission has given me no indication of how it proposes to fund the transmission of approximately a hundredweight of paper from my offices to the LSC.

Among the paperwork requested are a number of public law children files relating to care proceedings, adoption proceedings and secure accommodation orders.

The commission has not supplied any details of the person who is to receive these files for review.

I have spoken to an experienced guardian (who was involved in one of the matters) and he took the view that he would not be prepared to consent to the release of the papers solely for the purpose of an ex post facto review of performance.

I also spoke to one of the more eloquent parents I represent, who had no hesitation in stating that he was horrified at what he considered to be an unwarranted intrusion into his right to privacy.

In fact the parent concerned immediately asked me if it would be possible to initiate proceedings to prevent the dissemination of his personal information and was only slightly mollified when I pointed out that his file had not been called for.

I am unable to take instructions from all the clients concerned.

One at least has yet to reach the age of two.

I am assured by the LSC that its contract with the reviewers places the reviewers in the place of the commission.

I have not seen the contract and therefore cannot comment further, save to say that the LSC appears to consider it reasonable that I accept the word of a non-lawyer about the construction of a contract I have not seen.

No doubt if I produced a file showing that I had followed this course of action and consequently advised a client on this basis I would be castigated by the LSC for my obvious negligence in failing to make the appropriate checks myself.

Mrs R J Rixon, Solicitor-Advocate, Rixons, Folkestone, Kent