Dialling up advice

I profoundly disagree with the views expressed in the article 'Holding the Line' (see [2001] Gazette, 7 June, 30) which quotes a Lawyerline adviser as saying 'the trigger for complaints is almost invariably failure to return telephone calls'.

Mike Frith says that if solicitors are reluctant about telephoning Lawyerline this reflects the general tendency in the profession to deal with complaints by letter and thus avoid talking about them.

He goes on to say this is a totally wrong way to deal with complaints and he says: 'I can almost guarantee that a solicitor trying to deal with a complaint by letter will get it wrong.'

What nonsense.

Surely if anybody is likely to get it right in a letter it is going to be a lawyer.

And the writer has personally found that conversations by telephone, which are thrust upon one when one is extremely busy, leave room for misunderstanding and misinterpretation and are, if possible, to be avoided.

Unfortunately, unless you need one urgently - and they are then the best thing since sliced bread - lawyers have always been unpopular and I doubt very much whether there is anything we can do to change that image.

Brian Woodhams, solicitor, Liverpool