The new regulatory world of indicative behaviours, outcomes and principles may leave some solicitors longing for simpler days when they were just told what to do.

Take, for example, the no-nonsense guidance in the professional code of 1974 on the acceptability – or otherwise – of writing an offensive letter. The guidance briskly informs solicitors that: ‘It has been held unbefitting conduct to write offensive letters to clients of other solicitors, to government departments and to the public.’

As to clarification of what might constitute offensive, it provides an example: ‘A solicitor who wrote to a client: you are a sinister little creature, a poisonous creature – an offensive little wretch.’ Obiter wonders how that might have been rephrased to be acceptable, even in 1974.