Derek Hill, director of the Criminal Defence Service at the LSC, trumpets the rise in criminal legal aid contracts and offices as evidence that practitioners still believe publicly funded work is 'profitable' (see [2008] Gazette, 5 June, 4).


The statistic relied on is an increase in both firms and offices. These bald figures are meaningless, because when larger firms give up a criminal legal aid contract the lawyers who are doing the work often decamp and set up smaller practices - perhaps more than one being spawned by each large firm that closes.



The figures I would like to see published would relate to whether there has been an increase or fall in the number of duty solicitors, and how many of the 'new' firms and offices are sole practitioners or two-partner firms. This would indicate whether the new contract has resulted in 'new' solicitors (to crime) opting to do legal aid work who were not previously doing it. Or this may show - as I suspect - that this is not in fact the case and in truth the number of solicitors doing the work has fallen, and the increase in firms and offices merely represents a changed model of business practice.



I look forward to the LSC publishing these statistics.



Philip D Miles, Bay Advocates, Torquay