Three points struck me after reading your recent front-page article on the public defender system (PDS) (see [2003] Gazette, 18 September, 1).

- The PDS employs 65 staff at a cost of 3.5 million.

Some 77% of my firm's fee income comes from legal aid.

We employ 85 staff across four offices at a cost of less than 2.5 million.

- For the PDS, a 50% return and referral to its business indicates client satisfaction.

If our rates of return business were as low as 50% we would have ceased to exist years ago.

- The head of the New South Wales PDS says that by spending more he can acquire more experienced staff and so save money.

How true, so why are we being denied adequate funding to do exactly that?

Jeff Dean, manager, Ben Hoare Bell, Sunderland