Given the rate at which the government has been slashing the legal aid budget, one could be forgiven for thinking that there are no law firms left out there offering a legal aid service.

And indeed, that assumption is precisely what the Legal Action Group is worried about.

Director Steve Hynes has called on the Legal Services Commission to take steps to help firms publicise the fact that, against the odds, some of them do still offer publicly funded work.

It has hit upon the idea of bringing back the original legal aid logo – you know, the one that people actually recognise.

The logo was scrapped in 1999 when legal aid was rebranded and split into two parts – the Criminal Defence Service and the Community Legal Service.

Each of these was then given its own logo, but Obiter challenges any reader to recall what they look like.

LAG claims its plan would help the public to identify legal aid lawyers at a time when this is becoming increasingly difficult.

But an LSC spokesman was unimpressed.

He said: ‘We think the legal profession would expect us to be focusing on other more important matters at this time.’