Letters to the Editor

SHOPPING AROUND

Ruth Brown's letter implies that working pro bono is the only way to tackle the growing gap in legal services caused by firms giving up publicly funded work (see [2003] Gazette, 17 April, 14).

As a legal aid solicitor for 30 years until the Legal Services Commission decided my practice was not specialised enough to franchise, I share her concern about the decline in the legal aid sector.

However, there is something the traditional high street firm can do about it, without acting pro bono.

It can operate a law shop within the practice, as I have done for many years.

The idea is to provide resources for clients who are forced to act in person because they cannot access public funding.

I give clients free use of my practice library, get in free public service leaflets for them to take away, sell them legal forms (with a good mark-up) and books (bought in with a bookseller's discount) and offer them general legal advice at 10 for ten minutes.

The law shop now generates more than 15% of the practice's income, impresses clients, is an excellent antidote to the greedy image of solicitors, and generates new work for the conventional side of the practice.

It will not replace legal aid, deal with complicated cases, or provide a high profit margin, but it is not pro bono and it does offer an exciting service which empowers clients.

Peter Browne, Bristol

MIXED REWARDS

I am sure that I cannot be the only solicitor who is struck by the juxtaposition of Ruth Brown's letter and the article 'Legal aid winners named' in the same edition wherein we are told that Cherie Booth QC chaired the judging panel of the legal aid lawyer of the year awards.

How reassuring to know that Ms Booth is able to find time to judge the worthiness of legal aid lawyers while her husband's government is ruthlessly intent upon the destruction of those whose worthiness for awards she is being asked to determine.

Philip Cordery, Patterson Glenton & Stracey, South Shields

EXTRACTING CLARITY

It was with pleasure that I opened the fifth edition of Coal Mining Searches Directory & Guidance to read: '5.1 If a domestic property which is the subject of a coal mining search is to be charged as security for a loan, a copy of the mining report should be sent to the lender as soon as received depending on the result and the lender's instructions.

The solicitor should not comment substantively on the replies within the mining report but should recommend that they are referred to the lender's valuer to review.'

'Well, job done,' I thought, only to open the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Handbook to read that we should advise the lender of any entries revealed in the same way as we would advise the borrower and not simply send a copy of the mining search.

I look forward to the day that I become an expert in all conveyancing issues but until that day could someone please mediate between the Law Society and CML and let a confused property lawyer know what one needs to do with the results of a mining search?

Nina Jagpal, Shoosmiths, Northampton

- Anthony Reeves, chairman of the Law Society's coal mining sub-committee, replies: The CML has a representative on the sub-committee.

The Law Society's guidance contained in the directory states that the wording has been approved by the CML.

The Society was not consulted by the CML in relation to the CML handbook.

Not all loans are governed by the provisions of the CML handbook.

But where it does apply, I do not believe there is any conflict between its requirements and those of the Society guidance, which provides that the sending of the mining report is 'dependent on the result and the lender's instructions'.

Where the CML handbook applies, the CML handbook will be the instructions and will apply.

Unless varied by the particular lender involved in the transaction, these state that if a search reveals anything, the solicitor must report to the lender in the same way as it would inform the borrower.

In circumstances where an entry is revealed on the new Con29M report, both the borrower and the lender will, as the Society guidance indicates, need to be advised to seek advice from a person more appropriately qualified to advise on the technical information shown on a Con29M report.

In most cases this would be a valuer.

It is important that solicitors do not attempt to perform the function of the client's valuer or surveyor.

END THIS STAPLE DIET

I urge members of the legal profession to abandon the appalling practice of stapling letters to contracts and deeds.

When I was first articled in 1955, I was strongly advised by my principal that you should never pin or staple anything to a legal document.

Very good advice.

Please do not ignore it.

Anthony Rowberry, Rowberry Morris, Reading

CLARIFICATION

We would like to clarify that the views expressed by Paul Heritage-Redpath in his letter (see [2003] Gazette, 3 April, 14) were his own and not those of Videss.