Letters to the Editor

REV UP PAY DEBATE

Your headline relating to the legal aid 'crisis' was eye-catching after a joyful experience I had this week (see [2003] Gazette, 23 January, 1).

I head a large criminal department, commended in the current edition of Chambers as a forerunner in the field, in the north-east of England.

I was stunned to learn, having queried my garage service bill that the local Mercedes dealer was charging 79 per hour for a routine service that took five hours.

It does not seem too surprising that there is a legal aid crisis effectively preventing recruitment and staffing when one thinks of the rates offered to solicitors.

For example, during this winter while attending duty solicitor calls in the early hours of one morning, a drunken female demands my attendance, sits down for a consultation and throws up, indicating that excessive consumption of alcohol prevented her from giving me instructions or from participating in an interview (these were not her words).

Another memorable visit was in the early hours of the morning to attend a teenage youth who had smashed a flowerpot at a children's home, which he fully admitted on arrest but demanded that the duty solicitor should be with him for the interview.

For these experiences, the rate of pay was 67.93 per hour.

I was then able to return to bed to awake refreshed to carry out work in the magistrates' court where the rates vary between 26 and 62 per hour.

For any bright spark endeavouring to justify this outrageous position please note: the appalling rates of pay do not finance the motor vehicle, which in the course of a service was receiving an MOT certificate; I suspect that the garage does not have to pay phenomenal professional indemnity insurance and ever-increasing annual practising certificate fees to enable it to secure this valued remuneration.

Grahame Stowe, Grahame Stowe Bateson, Leeds

PART-TIME PROBLEM

I read with interest Emma Harley's letter (see [2003] Gazette, 16 January, 16).

I am employed under a part-time study contract.

I work the same hours as my fellow trainees, who have already completed the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and carry the same level of responsibility.

The issue that the Law Society seems to ignore is the reality of these contracts.

Time served under the auspices of a part-time study contract only counts as half-time for the purposes of the good service regulations.

Therefore, students need to find a firm that is willing to offer a three-year training contract, as the first two years of the contract will only count as one year's good service.

Many firms will not want to commit to that extra year; nor will they be prepared to be flexible in allowing a trainee extra time to study and attend lectures.

The part-time study contract does nothing to remove barriers for students and trainees - it merely changes the nature of the hoops we have to jump through.

I have been fortunate that my firm has been immensely supportive and flexible.

However, I know from my colleagues on the LPC that this is the exception to the rule.

The part-time study contract is of limited value to students.

It is time that the Society considered how these contracts could be made more viable for firms and would-be trainees.

Susan Hardie, trainee solicitor, Bindman & Partners, London

PROPERTY BOOM

I was interested to read James Carter's letter concerning 'referral re-think' (see [2003] Gazette, 16 January, 16).

Leaving aside the issue of paying for referrals, it is my view that solicitors who deal in property work should be seeking to set up their own estate agency departments, rather than paying estate agents for referrals.

My firm has operated an estate agency service now for some three years.

We have found this to be an ideal mechanism for preserving professional independence, offering clients a wide range of services, and obtaining proper fees for conveyancing work.

Estate agency services are particularly appropriate for those firms of solicitors that operate in the high street, have ground-floor premises, and have a good probate practice and/or deal with property investment clients.

The cost of setting up an estate agency department is not enormous and, generally speaking, the staffing of such departments tend to be less expensive than staffing other departments in a legal practice.

I constantly hear solicitors grumble about poor level of fees they obtain when compared to estate agents Well, now they can do something about it.

John O'Neill, John O'Neill & Co, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne

POOLING RESOURCES

The decision of Chief Master Peter Hurst that certain fees paid to intermediaries are not recoverable is excellent news (see [2003] Gazette, 9 January, 3).

The actions of claims management companies have seriously damaged the reputation of solicitors.

Every time the press has a go at these ambulance chasers, it invariably implies that lawyers are behind it.

As a result, those of us who shun these characters and attempt to rely on our own marketing efforts have the problem of seeking to distinguish ourselves in this market in addition to promoting our service.

I applaud those solicitors who have pooled resources to market accident services directly.

Unfortunately, solicitors do not usually make good businessmen.

Their lack of confidence in competing with the claims farmers is depressing.

If the Law Society strictly enforces the referral code, aided by this latest judgment, the profession may be more ready to seize the initiative.

John O'Donnell, O'Donnells, Preston

MEETING DEADLINES

As a litigator, I am puzzled as to why some conveyancers get away without working to deadlines like the rest of the profession.

A short chain involving four properties was agreed in July.

We were selling a smallholding, but the purchasers' solicitors only woke up to the implications of this in October.

There then started a constant trickle of further enquiries, all of which we dealt with.

Proposed completion dates came and went, and still the purchasers' solicitors failed to appreciate that there was any kind of urgency in completing their enquiries.

Their clients had always said that they did not want to complete around Christmas so when, by mid-December, their solicitors were still humming and haaing, they decided to withdraw completely and the chain collapsed, costing everyone a great deal of money, inconvenience and distress.

I have since heard of other similar situations where the complacency of some conveyancing solicitors has been blamed for obstructing the purpose for which they were instructed.

Nicola Ellis, non-practising solicitor, Liskeard, Cornwall

LENDING SOME HELP

Why do lenders have to make it so difficult for solicitors? It happens so often that we have a domestic conveyancing client who is moving, but staying with the same lender and transferring the terms of his old mortgage to the new one.

The lender tells him that he will not have to pay an early settlement penalty as long as the new mortgage is completed at the same time as the discharge of the old one.

In these circumstances, we ask for a redemption statement.

We add an extra paragraph to our letter referring to the new address and new mortgage account number.

We even put in it in large bold type.

We ask for specific confirmation that no penalty is payable given that the old and new loans are respectively redeeming and completing on the same day.

In reply, we either get a standard redemption statement, including the penalty with no reference to our extra paragraph, or an equally useless statement that no penalty is payable if a new loan on the same terms is taken out.

How are we expected to know whether the terms are the same? Our client has perhaps told us this, but could be mistaken.

We cannot take the risk - it is our undertaking that has to be given - and we have to make up the shortfall if we get it wrong.

We usually have to spend ages on the telephone trying to extract promises of a confirmatory letter from call centre staff.

We end up having to tell our clients that we will have to charge more because of the time we spend chasing the lender to get the confirmation.

This is all because of lender bureaucracy - why don't they pay?

Richard Webster, Richard Webster & Co, Eastleigh

NEXT IN LINE

I note the comments by Paul Cooper that deregulation might improve the standard of conveyancing (see [2003] Gazette, 9 January, 12).

Scarcely a week goes by without us completing on a leasehold transaction where the other side's conveyancer has failed to address important issues.

We often receive calls after completion asking for assistance in resolving something that has been overlooked.

This is mainly caused by a competitive market.

Firms are trying to carry out leasehold conveyancing at prices similar to freeholds.

They are cutting corners, either deliberately or through pressure of work.

Deregulation and therefore more competition may drive fees lower.

Buyers are interested in the transaction being completed quickly (and in most cases cheaply).

They are not usually qualified to determine the competence of the person dealing with their case.

With the relaxation of some of the Council of Mortgage Lenders requirements and the less onerous insurance backed certificates of title being offered by some mortgagees, some conveyancers may feel safe as most individuals do not have the resources to undertake litigation.

Currently, most of the conditional fee agreements are in respect of personal injury claims.

Second in the list for the future may well be claims against conveyancers.Douglas Narayan, Ferns, London

CONFLICTING EMOTIONS

I am astonished that the Gazette has published an article about the coming conflict in the Middle East without any mention of the likely thousands of deaths that will result (see [2003] Gazette, 23 January, 1).

While firms such as Trowers & Hamlins and Norton Rose are looking to exploit the 'business boost' that a war may bring, we are concentrating our war planning on getting ready to assist the refugees that will have to flee the region, and also concentrating on allowing staff time off with pay to help peace campaigning.

Paul Ward, PJ Ward, Brighton