So that is £4 million of taxpayers' money wasted on a project [the Family Advice and Information Service] which family lawyers said at the outset was ill-conceived and pointless (see [2007] Gazette, 6 September, 4).


I can recall the initial meeting with the research team. All the solicitors present told them that, as a matter of course, we would use other agencies wherever possible to support our clients whether with housing, debt, counselling, child welfare, self-protection, and so on. Most of us have a good working knowledge of the agencies in our area. What we also know is that many of these agencies are in the voluntary sector and have limited funding and resources. Others are only available to those who can pay. Statutory services are only for crises. There is no umbrella organisation to pull these services together. What did they think was going to be the outcome?



Can we have the £4 million reimbursed into the legal aid pot and can this be used to increase our rates of remuneration that have been frozen for the past seven years? We want to be able to stay in the business of advising and supporting our clients at difficult times in their lives, which is something that I would suggest we do rather well.



Patricia Gore, Davies Gore Lomax, Leeds