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Anonymous 11.18pm. At last someone who shares my view of the damage done by the "consultant" duty solcitors and barristers. The consultants, you call them "Ghosts", have substantially increased the base costs of criminal legal aid firms that use them. Firms that do not use them, such as our own, suffer the disadvantage of lower work volumes. They have also enabled low quality firms to rack up their volumes of case work and in my view are a major driver of lower standards of criminal representation. Firms that would not have any success at all relying on their own skills and client care are guaranteed volumes of work that enable them to thrive. I have raised this with account managers and in consulation documents - nothing ever came of it.

We succesfully bid in TT exercise, one of the few benefits of which would be the decimation of the consultants retainers. Now a nightmare scenario looms of TT being abandoned and a reversion to the old system.

Should TT be abandoned I sincerely hope that the LAA/MOJ read these comments, put away their ingrained animus, and award the duty slots to the firms on an existing or historic basis.