High street practitioners may not be highly regarded within the profession but they are its most visible face - a fact on which the Law Society might do well to ponder. Is enough done to explain to the media and the public the reality of their work?

For example, such foot-soldiers in the law would welcome disclosure, client permitting, of the defence costs in the case of the villain who ate an apple as she drove, where the taxpayer apparently paid £10,000 for the prosecution. My own poor researches suggest that the state tolerates paying 11 times as much for prosecution as for defence. Equality before the law? Money talks.



Barry Cutter, Ryde, Isle of Wight