In his letter (see [2005] Gazette, 24 February, 14) Andrew Hannam refers to potentially adverse but, significantly, unspecified consequences of the Legal Services Commission's civil high-cost case contract, which will soon have been in force, in broadly the same form, for five years.


He says the contract has the potential to produce results that 'benefit neither the commission nor the solicitor nor, most importantly, the client'.


The only specific consequence of the contract (clauses 12 to 16 of which require the solicitor to decide whether to take payment from the fund or from 'the other side', yet preserve the commis-sion's right to recover costs under orders or agreements and include provisions dealing with issues-based costs orders) given by Mr Hannam is 'the inability of the solicitor to recover (again, by way of the statutory charge) any legal aid only costs'.


This was an intended consequence. If such costs were recoverable, they would come out of clients' compensation.


The contract has been working well for five years. If, in any case, exceptional circumstances occur they should be raised with the appropriate case manager.


Simon Morgans, head of contract lawyers' team, Legal Services Commission, London