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Thanks to the CBA for cutting a self-serving deal which plays to the populist view that lawyers are all just in it for the money, which the government have used all along to try to justify the cuts. Thanks to the TLS for playing along with these backroom deals without consulting with its members and diluting the impact of previous protests and those to come next week. Who will take any of us seriously now? What happened to the issue of access to justice in all this?

I can predict what will happen: the cuts for solicitors will go ahead as planned but, following the 2015 election, those for barristers will be cancelled by the new government keen to retain favour with them. Solicitors will remain impoverished while the Bar goes on as before. It's nauseating.

Sorry to all the honourable barristers out there but your leadership has made the Criminal Bar into turncoats willing to ignore the decimation of the criminal justice system in exchange for money. What they haven't remembered is how they will suffer when there are less solicitors around to instruct them because of the new duty contract system and solicitors' fee cuts which will force many out of business.

Solicitors - the best answer to this betrayal is to invest in obtaining Higher Rights asap and starting to do all work in-house.