The civil justice system urgently needs Lord Woolf's modernising reforms to take it into the next century.

Solicitors should welcome the Access to Justice report and ensure that it is fully implemented, provided that money is made available to make it work.This government and the opposition are committed to change.

If lawyers do not co-operate and work with ideas that are intended to achieve a civil justice system more in tune with modern needs, it is clear that reform will be taken out of our hands with the possibility of more fundamental and damaging changes being introduced.Lord Woolf recognises the importance of the survival of small firms, and that legal aid should be available for litigation resolution and for alternative dispute resolution.

The legal aid white paper threatens to reduce access to justice; by supporting Lord Woolf's reforms, we can help to make sure that this does not happen.Here is an opportunity to work with a new concept -- a plaintiff's offer to settle with effective sanctions -- giving a bargaining power that, at the moment, only exists for a defendant by means of payment into court.Access to Justice is not a policy document that has arisen from an abstract discussion between civil servants at the Treasury.

It is a practical report that has considered the views of working lawyers and all those involved in the litigation process.

Recommendations have evolved after extensive public consultations over a period of two years, taking into account what people have said is possible or unworkable.Initially there were fears that inappropriate cases would be forced on to the fast track to save money.

But the comprehensive list of exclusions gives reassurance -- for example, all cases where oral evidence from experts is required will be excluded.

The same applies to test cases that raise issues of public importance, and to cases where the length of legal argument or the volume of evidence does not fit the timetable.Improvements in access to justice should mean more business for solicitors.

People who have been deterred from coming to solicitors because they are worried about the possible costs will now have the confidence to do so.

There is also an opportunity for well-organised firms of solicitors to process a lot more claims.On the fast track, Lord Woolf says that, unless there is a written agreement to the contrary, a solicitor will not charge the client more than the maximum fixed recoverable costs.

For the multi-track, the profession has to do more than simply quote an hourly rate.

Solicitors will need to detail what the overall costs might be, and to tell the client when that estimate is likely to change.

Lord Woolf is doing no more than promoting the way in which those who believe in good practice management already act.For a long time lawyers have been blamed for profiting from the slow and costly process of the civil justice system at the expense of the client and the taxpayer.

This is our chance to demonstrate that it is not our fault and not what the profession wants.

We must meet the reforms as a series of challenges and opportunities.

And we should not deceive ourselves that maintaining the status quo is an option.

Change will come.