As a hard-pressed legal aid family lawyer, I was in desperate need of comfort food recently. So I popped out for a chocolate cream egg, which cost 46p. I was shocked by the price but, revived by the rush of sugar, I had a quick look at my ‘At A Glance’, including the Retail Prices Index, and my historic collection of legal aid keycards.

I calculated that, in 1985, a chocolate egg would have cost 17p and I would have been paid £90 under legal aid for an undefended divorce where a petition had been drafted.

In 2010, a chocolate egg costs 46p and I will be paid £94 under Legal Help for the same work.

This means that, in 1985, I could buy 529 chocolate eggs for every such divorce; in 2010 I can only buy 204. The role of the legal aid family lawyer is worth less than half of what it was 25 years ago.

Now legal aid family lawyers are bidding against each other for a legal aid contract. After many years promoting a conciliatory, non-confrontational, collaborative approach to resolving disputes between their clients, these lawyers have to resort to a strategic, back-stabbing, poker-faced game that would not go amiss in a Las Vegas casino.

So, this Easter, as they struggle with their tender documents, I urge legal aid family lawyers to ask themselves – if they are successful in securing a contract – how many chocolate eggs will they be able to buy?

Jane Staff, Salmons, Stoke-on-Trent