Your last edition rightly concentrated on the government’s proposals to (mostly not) change the system for claims for personal injury, housing etcetera (see [2008] Gazette, 24 July, 1). You framed much of your coverage in terms of the winners and losers – the government, the unions, insurers – essentially asking if it was all worthwhile?

I will say this: there is one clear winner. The Law Society and its Civil Litigation Committee has fought a model campaign. From its ‘fast and fair’ initiative to the detailed grind of its responses and lobbying on the proposals, the Law Society has obtained a result which is excellent for solicitors and their clients, ensuring that clients on both sides get proper representation in a fair system which – at least – offers to remunerate the profession properly for its work.

And let us not knock the government for ‘backing down’, when the reality is that it has shown itself sensibly open to well-reasoned arguments – especially when there is plenty more work to be done in persuading the powers-that-be to be realistic about costs.