This may make you laugh. I still do legal aid work. Child care. The rates have not gone up since 1998. Travelling and waiting, I am earning for the firm £32.45 per hour. Because I'm on the Children Panel I can charge an extra amount per hour, just under 5p. For letters I'm paid £4.10, plus for being on the panel, an extra half a penny. If you're not laughing yet, I'm paid £2.05 for a letter I receive (plus 0.3p for being on the panel).

We can now get excited because the hourly rate for preparation/attendance is £64.90, or for advocacy £71.50.

The £250 payment made when a legal aid certificate issued when franchising first came out has been taken away. We can claim 75% of what we have done after three months, but then we are expected to work 12 months without any payment.

Pity petrol has gone up. We are on the same mileage as in 1998.

But fixed fee. When acting for a parent, for all preparation, attendances, correspondence and so on, I will be paid £2,621, because I practise in the north. If I were Welsh it would be £3,250. Sounds like racism to me. If the amount of work (at 1998 rates) is more than double £2,621 ie £5,241, my bill is assessed at 1998 rates. If, however, I do say £4,900 worth of work, you've guessed it, I am paid £2,621.

I wish I were in a union.

Barry Patterson, Hodgsons & Mortimer, Darlington