Footing the bill

I was devastated to read that some partners in the top 100 firms may have to forgo one month's drawings to meet their tax liabilities (see [2003] Gazette, 10 July, 1).

For the majority of criminal legal aid practitioners, this may only amount to one or two thousand pounds, but for the partners in the top 100, a month's drawings is likely to be at least ten times or more that amount.

Now I realise how selflessly the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, toiled to ensure that legal aid lawyers could not be faced with such huge bills.

Michael Walker, Thorpes, Hereford