At your service

Last week saw the launch of the Freelawyer advice and referral Web site featuring seven 'virtual lawyers'.

Real world lawyers beware - these fictitious characters will see clients straight away, day or night.

They are unmistakably the products of focus groups, with names subtly underlining the site's competency, approachability and up-to-date youthfulness.

There's senior partner Mary, whose name suggests a staid but reliable pair of hands.

Maya, who handles your personal injury enquiries, obviously had hippies for parents but, choosing the nonconformist path, went into law.

Or there's Tanya (above), the employment specialist whose trendy-sounding name guarantees instant sympathy for those who've been fired after coming in at lunchtime every Monday having 'larged it' all weekend.

Sadly though, Obiter can expose them as nothing more than a facade.

Freelawyer founder Leon de Costa revealed that his company's image consultants used a casting agency to find models to pose as their virtual lawyers.

Unfortunately, according to Mr de Costa, the faces selected were 'too good looking' to be credible as lawyers, and the agency was instructed to find some more 'ordinary looking' models, whose faces now grace the site.