Beaten to the punch

1 have only one regret about the comment article of Roger Bolt (see [2000] Gazette 29 June, 14 ) - he beat me to it.As a practitioner in personal injury litigation for more than 20 years, the radical changes that have taken place, particularly over the last five years or so mean that we are all working now in a completely different market and culture.It is with sadness that 1 began to recognise a long time ago that pure quality of service, resulting in recommendation after recommendation is no longer going to be good enough by itself.

Gradually, the power of advertising and marketing presentation skills have become increasingly important.

Now, we have moved beyond even that to the preponderance of what, Mr Bolt refers to as 'claim farmers'.We are both a profession and a business.

There is absolutely no point in standing still.

However reluctant we may be, we need to move forward in the real commercial world in order to continue to compete.

Indeed in reality, is there a real difference commercially between undertaking volume unpaid or unremunerative small claims work for bulk providers in order to obtain the benefit of personal injury referrals, and the payment of introductory commissions?The point is that even within the profession we ought to be entitled to compete on a level playing field rather than practitioners resorting to artificiality in order to keep within the practice rules.With reluctance, we must recognise these truths now and reach a consensus about it quickly rather than surrendering our work so that we may never see it again.

Neil Sugarman, Graham Leigh Pfeffer & Co, Bury