Black advocates in the Western Cape have accused the office of the state attorney of playing "God" by giving lucrative legal work to a preferred few. The allegations are contained in a report compiled by the Advocates for Transformation in the province, and was handed to Deputy Justice and Constitutional Development Minster John Jeffery. A group of black advocates have in the past picketed outside parliament over the skewed briefing patterns.According to the report black advocates are allocated few briefs from the state attorney at irregular intervals. The work is insufficient to sustain their practices.In addition, the quality of work they receive does not enhance their skills - this includes personal injury or litigation against police."They note that there is little or no exposure to many other matters such as labour matters, Home Affairs matters and SARS matters in general, which on the basis of speciality are consistently allocated to the same members and seemingly without any forethought as to developing persons new to or interested in those specialities," the report reads."One member notes it is fundamentally important that it should be remembered that black counsel generally do not get briefed by the established major law firms, and are thus reliant on the state for work. Black women under the circumstances are unable to sustain their practices and many have left the bar as a consequence of skewed briefing patterns."The state attorney's office has failed to reach its target of allocating 76% of total payments to previously disadvantaged advocates between April 1 2014 and March 31 2015, said the report.The report was handed to Jeffery last month...