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It's all very well to talk about the fees being too low. But this is public money and it should be well spent.

Despite the new contract terms for duty solicitors, the list of duty solicitors for the April 2017 rota is still full of ghosts. Still full of case workers and crown court advocates and solicitors in other practice areas, who never go near a police station or magistrates save for the minimum requirement, being held out as police station and magistrate court experts. It is a sham. We have no argument for the fees going up until our house is in order.

For the SRA there is an urgency to all this. Wages are rising fast in Greater London. The average £32kpa "do the day job", no pension, Duty Solicitor can double their income and get a pension, by leaving criminal defence, and they are. Not from a lack of altruism, but the biological drive to have and maintain a home and a family.

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