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I recall that some time in the last decade, after we had been able to obtain for some years non-means tested legal aid for everyone charged with a suitably serious offence, the government changed the system. As I recall it the reason for doing this was a press campaign regarding "lottery winners and premiership footballers" getting free legal aid. At the time the Law Society were silent in respect of defending the old system, explaining why those two individuals had managed to obtain legal aid and why this actually represented value for (public)money. The current horrendous system was then introduced since when on many, many occasions I have had to break the miserable news to the clients of their astronimic legal aid contributions. How on earth has it taken this length of time for the Law Society to say or do anything about this?