Just after putting up the Cure below two back-to-back phone calls dragged me back into the unremitting gloom of present times. The first was from a firm who's fund take in the proposed expanded duty scheme borders will be tantalisingly below the £50k threshold (they do provide a significant element of supply in the existing scheme). I think I talked the caller back from the edge, if nothing else by exploring the value their current Duty allocation might hold for another larger supplier. That said another small town will probably lose another experienced practitioner.

More depressing however is a member of the exclusive “I would instruct” club, and a client of over 10 years, who will shortly leave the ranks of the Duty Solicitor scheme. His assistant has gone, to the security of a larger firm, and his continued subsidisation of the CDS will no longer have even its current, limited viability. His growing civil practice, at private client rates and with only a tiny amount of regulatory headache, waits.