I spent this last weekend at the Law Society of Scotland's annual conference.

It was a most rewarding experience, with powerful addresses from the president, Ian Dunbar, and Judge David Edward.The president referred to the denial of access to justice as 'a disgrace in a free democratic society'.

He went on: 'I deprecate the government's policies to do nothin g other than reduce bottom line costs when they deny a justified increase in legal aid fees; refuse to expand the legal aid system to provide needy representation before tribunals; to impose swingeing new court fees; and to put the criminal justice scheme on a tariff basis.'The president of Northern Ireland was with us and was totally in agreement.

We all feel the same.

Our profession cannot be expected to tolerate this denial of access to justice.The profession's response to my February column was overwhelming.

I am left with a great sense of pride, sadness and anger.

The hard evidence of frustration and legal deprivation is available in the form of letters for the Lord Chancellor to see.

There follows just one such letter from Mr Monkhouse of Blyth.'Dear PresidentI am a sole practitioner working in a small north-eastern coastal town which was once a centre of industry but which is now largely derelict.

The town grew up around its mining industry and its port but the mine has long since been closed and the port is not exactly a hive of frenzied activity.

There are a few factory units that have been established on local industrial estates but for the majority of the young there is no prospect of employment.I started work in this town in 1980 when I joined a sole practitioner as his assistant solicitor.

At that time approximately 60% of my principal's work was legally aided but realistic conveyancing fees meant that life was comparatively comfortable.

Even so, junior partners in local firms were only averaging approximately £12,000 per annum by way of income.

My income was no different from that when I was taken into partnership.As the years progressed and the mine was closed, the incidence of unemployment rose and reliance upon legal aid increased.

At the same time, conveyancing fees were reduced in real terms by up to 66% and any firm of solicitors that wished to charge anything like a realistic figure for conveyancing usually found their work dropped off considerably.The boom years of the middle and late 1980s by and large passed us by and the social and moral decay in the area became ever more obvious.

This was evidenced by increased crime, principally amongst the young and unemployed.Over the years, as the crime figures have soared, I have spent more and more of my time dealing with criminal law to the point where, as a sole practitioner, I do not have the requisite time to devote to any other areas of law and accordingly, in order to avoid potential negligence claims, I restrict myself to dealing with only criminal matters.

I therefore rely upon legal aid for my very existence and I cannot remember the last time I dealt with a privately paying criminal matter.

Perhaps it could be argued that I should diversify but if I did I would only be diversifying into other legally aided areas as there are very few people in this town who are able to pay on a private basis.In any event, the amount of time I have to spend in court and in police stations means that I can never guarantee to see clients when they wish to see me.

I am not alone in this town in working seven days per week and 24 hours per day.

I and others like me are involved in the court duty solicitors scheme, the Saturday morning court duty solicitors scheme and the 24-hour duty solicitors scheme.

In addition, of course, I attend police stations out of office hours for my own clients and the only relief I have is a retired police officer who deals with some of my night time call-outs to enable me to have a good night's sleep.I do not make a vast fortune fr om my endeavours and only draw £250 per week net from my business.

I do not drive a big car and whilst I can afford a decent holiday this is largely due to the fact that my wife works and we have no children.

I am not inefficient and I run on a skeleton staff who are not paid generous wages but who have proved over the years to be fiercely loyal and continue to work for me because they like their jobs.I do not have vast amounts of money tucked away in a building society for a rainy day and rely entirely on my fortnightly legal aid cheque.

If this is delayed or I have had a quiet period then inevitably I am scratching around for money to pay bills.

Sometimes I have to delay taking my own drawings to ensure that the staff are paid.The only good news from my point of view, which is bad news for society as a whole, is that the sense of hopelessness that pervades this town has resulted in a massive rise in the use of illegal drugs.

I see 15 and 16-year-old boys and girls crawling up the walls whilst detained in police cells desperate for their next 'fix'.

In my mind, there is no doubt that economic decline leads to social decline which leads to crime.

I will never be out of work but there will come a time if the legal aid situation is not improved when I will have to consider giving up practice and turning to some other form of employment.

I do not say this lightly because over the last two or three years I have given serious thought to doing just that.Two years ago I had a partner and we were doing so much work that we needed to employ an assistant solicitor.

We interviewed lots of people but at the end of the day nobody was prepared to accept the low wages and difficult conditions.

Eventually we managed to secure the services of an assistant solicitor by paying more than we really could afford.

In effect, our assistant was taking the same as myself and my partner from the business.

In order to keep him we made him a partner and on occasions we had to go cap in hand to the bank for overdraft facilities to enable day-to-day bills to be met.Although things improved, financial difficulties were always at the forefront of our practice which led to a breakdown in the practice and an eventual parting of the ways.As I approach 40, I know that I will not be able to keep up my frenetic work pace for many more years.

No one will buy my practice because I am the goodwill and indeed I do not know of many who have the money to purchase such a practice.

I cannot make adequate pension provisions and my office, which is mortgaged up to the hilt, is gradually falling down around me.I have long since given up expecting to be fairly remunerated for legal aid work but now I need a substantial hike in legal aid rates to ensure survival and to ensure that I can continue to service my clients, many of whom are social misfits and outcasts.

They do not have the ability to represent themselves and the opportunities for miscarriages of justice are immense.Frankly I could make this letter substantially longer and more detailed but I have just received a telephone call to attend my local police station for a drug addict who has been arrested on a burglary charge (presumably to obtain drugs).'