Letter: Barristers who work for free

I NOTE in your news round-up (8 October) that Peter Goldsmith QC, chairman of the Bar Council, has responded to Tony Blair's "plea for rich lawyers to do pro bono work for nothing by offering to give three days of legal advice a year unpaid". I wonder how many of your readers appreciate that for years, many barristers and solicitors who could not, by the wildest stretch of imagination, be called rich have been giving of their time and effort for nothing to help those who cannot obtain legal aid.

For my part, as a junior barrister (ie not a QC) but with some years' experience, I calculate that so far this year I have spent seven days working for nothing, and I am not alone. This practice has increased since the latest restrictions imposed on eligibility for legal aid by the Government. But our efforts cannot make good the absence of legal aid in civil cases for many millions who, but for the cuts, would be eligible.

For my pains I have a large overdraft, have received rather less in total this year in paid fees than pounds 5,000, and have a backlog of fees due of between pounds 50,000 and pounds 60,000. My garage charges out its mechanics at a higher hourly rate than I receive net after paying chambers' and clerks' fees, and hotel and travelling expenses out of London in legal-aid cases or in prosecuting at crown courts for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Name and address supplied