Letter: Legal Aid crisis

Sir : Few rational people seriously believe that we stand just days from Armageddon. One profession, however, awaits the end of the millennium with a justified sense of doom.

I speak of solicitors who work in the legal aid field. 1 January 2000 sees the abolition of civil legal aid as we know it. From this date all legal advice and representation in civil work will be provided under exclusive contracts with the government Legal Aid Board and firms will be subject to government-imposed case quotas and case cash limits.

The Government has successfully limited all public debate to the slogan of three words, "fat cat lawyers".

If the Government complains that costs have spiralled out of control, it is difficult to identify which area of the process has escaped control. The conclusion must be that it is demand and need for legal assistance that has increased year on year.

Already, 6,000 firms have declined to bid for contracts. Many others are seriously contemplating closure of departments because of new rates of pay and terms that restrict and constrict our ability to meet demand for help. If that happens, who will remain to assert the rights of members of the public who cannot afford a private lawyer: the unfairly dismissed, those with disabilities who are unfairly discriminated against, those unfairly denied benefits, those unlawfully evicted, or forced to live in dangerous or dilapidated housing, the parties and the children of broken relationships, those detained without limit of time who have committed no crime, but simply because they are considered mentally ill? Who will speak for these members of our community?

JEREMY ORNSTIN

London N8