ANGRY advocates in York will tomorrow become the first in the country to strike in protest against what they call Government "bully-boy" tactics.

The action means that no lawyers will be turning up at the city's magistrates court to represent the accused And the duty solicitor, always on hand to assist those not already represented, will be absent.

The highly unusual move, which is now expected to escalate and affect courts throughout Britain, is being taken as the next step following a recent Law Society resolution advising solicitors not to sign new contracts the Legal Services Commission intend to introduce in April.

Lawyers believe the contracts are being "imposed" on all solicitors undertaking legally-aided criminal defences and will regulate not only court work but all other jobs done by them.

This, they say, includes advising and assisting people who are detained in custody at police stations who are often frightened, nervous, have mental health or language problems and whose liberty, jobs and reputation are often at stake.

The solicitors add that despite efforts to negotiate a reasonable framework with the Lord Chancellor's Department and the Legal Service Commission so defendants can be properly represented, the contracts remain "unworkable, inadequate and wholly one-sided and very much against the interests of the clients they are intended to protect."

Recently, in another unprecendented move, a group of 17 solicitors who undertake court work in the York area unanimously signed a declaration that they were not prepared to put their signatures to be proposed 200-page complex contracts.

That assertion, which has since become known as the "York Declaration", has already been adopted and signed by many other similar groups of solicitors at meetings throughout England and Wales with almost 100 per cent support.

Peter Tetlow, a spokesman for the York Defence Lawyers, said: "It is with the utmost regret that we have been forced to adopt this course of action. We are taking the lead and are the first in Britain to take strike action."

He said the dispute was not simply about money and added: "It is much wider and more fundamental than that. It is about government attempting to steamroller through, for political reasons, a system which will virtually destroy the ability of independent lawyers to give proper and independent advice to their clients."

Mr Tetlow claimed it would rapidly lead to a situation where the public at large had no access to truly independent advice and added the people on strike in York were not solicitors who could be remotely described as "fat cats".

Updated: 12:40 Thursday, February 01, 2001