Lawyers in Sussex plan to strike this afternoon in a bid to win improved legal aid payments.

The "Day of Action", running from 5pm to the same time tomorrow, will mean criminal solicitors boycotting police stations and courts in Crawley, Mid Sussex and Horsham.

Police will have to scour the county to find lawyers prepared to represent arrested suspects being held in cells or they will have to release them on bail.

The action has been led by lawyers in Brighton and they have been joined now by colleagues in Eastbourne, Worthing and Crawley.

Action is planned elsewhere in the country and the Law Society has advised solicitors not to sign new Legal Aid contracts.

Today's action is thought to be the first industrial action in the history of the legal profession.

The dispute surrounds Government plans to have criminal defence firms under franchised contracts for legal aid work by next April to replace the current payasyouwork system.

Solicitors maintain it would add a huge administrative burden to their costs when there has been no increase in legal aid payments for eight years.

Brighton solicitor Andrew Bishop said: "Many firms simply cannot afford to implement the changes. The Government has taken us for granted for too long."