I write as one of the criminal defence solicitors in Berkshire who supported the recent protest over charges to pay structures (see [2004] Gazette, 29 January, 4).

I note Richard Collins's comment that he does not believe that action that targets clients is the appropriate way forward.

I do not believe that direct pay cuts, either under changes to the payment rates for police station work or under the new standard fee scheme proposed as part of the effective trial management programme, are an appropriate way forward.

Our administrative costs and overheads keep on going up, while the Department for Constitutional Affairs seeks to squeeze the costs arising from the increased workload that has been created by giving more resources to the police and introducing new offences.

I think Mr Collins was rather disingenuous when he claimed at the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association meeting that the strike had no impact.

Evidence from individual solicitors about the number of back-up calls that the duty solicitor call centre had to make suggests very much the opposite.

Would the Legal Services Commission like to tell us what steps it is taking to deal with the overspend on the criminal legal aid budget by considering cuts in its own bureaucracy? I am sure this could be more productive than imposing pay cuts on the solicitors who carry out the actual hard work of defending members of the public.

Martin Jackson, solicitor-advocate, Reading Solicitors Chambers