As criminal trials become more complicated, especially those involving terrorism, fraud and serious historic sex abuse, so the volume of evidence has increased. Despite this - and despite the fact that defence solicitors have not received a fee increase since 1998, and despite the vast majority of the 1,005 responses to their consultation being against the proposals - the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has pressed ahead with its Litigators' Graduated Fees Scheme (LGFS) reforms.

Under the MoJ plans payments for paper-heavy crown court cases will be slashed, further squeezing practitioners who provide criminal legal aid services. The stated rationale for the cut in payment is that more pages of evidence are now being served by the CPS, and that average costs per case are increasing. However, the reality is that rates for many cases have become so low that firms doing this work often do so at a loss, and have to cross-subsidise this work with funding from other cases or simply stop taking such cases, with subsequent impacts to access to justice.

So deep are the Law Society's concerns about the effect of the LGFS reforms on an already fragile criminal legal aid sector, and on access to justice, that they are preparing a High Court challenge against the cuts.

Law Society vice-president Christina Blacklaws said: The Law Society has consistently warned that this fragile criminal legal aid market cannot stand any further cuts. Any more will put access to justice in this country under even greater threat.

We now have no choice but to take this significant step.

The relatively minor savings that might be obtained from these ill-advised cuts do not warrant the substantial damage they could cause.

These cuts are a quick-fix, money-saving solution. They are untenable, highly counter-productive and short-sighted. The legal action we are announcing today is a move forced on us – it is not a route we would have chosen.

The impact of the fee-cut of 8.75% in March 2014 has not yet been assessed - either on the sustainability of legal aid firms or on the savings it has brought to the government.

The Law Society have also noted that further savings are set to be made in the future from a wide-ranging courts and tribunals reform programme, as well as other intiatives; their view is that the savings from these intiatives must be taken into account before potentially damaging cuts are made to solicitors' fees. The Law Society also reminded legal aid lawyers that they can refuse work that's uneconomical.