Your report concerning the risk of court action arising from money laundering reporting (see [2010] Gazette, February 11, 1) highlights the invidious position of solicitors under the current legislation.

The certainty that ought to be present when a criminal offence is defined is markedly lacking in the money laundering legislation, where so much depends on the meaning of reasonable suspicion. Previously, lawyers could minimise the risk of offending by reporting defensively. This door has now been effectively closed, so that the solicitor stands to be criminalised if erring on one side and to be held liable in damages if erring on the other. With no clear path between the two perils, the practitioner is placed in a position that might fairly be described as double jeopardy.

I hope the Law Society will be mounting a vigorous protest over this detestable state of affairs.

Roger Barber, Millington Wallace & Co, London